Drinking
Cruising to the Canaries – Part Three
Day 10 – Monday, at sea I awoke just after six thirty to scattered cloud and a bit of movement. We are on a fast run for this ship, about 20 knots, to Cadiz for [more…]
Blog
Communism
Net Migration
One of the migration statistics that really annoys me is net migration. This is obviously immigration minus emigration. It is a basically pointless measurement aimed mostly at avoiding the charge of racism. Guilty as charged [more…]
Literature
Embers of The Affair, Part Three
A la recherche du temps perdu (Proust) Together again Lightly falling, sunlight drawing Motes that dance and hue the air Shafts of colour, space and lightness, Draw me to you point the stair. Ah your [more…]
Animals
Larry’s Diary, Week Two Hundred And Eighty-Eight
Monday Good morning all, it was very wet in London when I hurried down the garden this morning. I was delighted to find Felix Chicken in my bowl when I got back. I hear that [more…]
Biography
Pen Portrait: Sir Alex Younger, Former Head of MI6
A friend tells me that during their first interview, a candidate for the Intelligence Branch of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) is informed the job involves ‘getting the hang’ of people of interest. The hopeful [more…]
Fiction
The Past is Present, Chapter Fifteen
In Charing Cross hospital, Sally was sitting at the bedside, her Glock was in the pocket of the Kevlar vest, Jane was sleeping, having been sedated. Dave had phoned to say both Ruth and armed [more…]
20th Century
The History of Pop Music – 1982
Featured song: Madness – Madness – House of Fun This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 when they stopped [more…]
19th Century
Troublesome Afghanistan
My great-grandfather on my father’s mother’s side served in Afghanistan. Being hill, mountain and lake types, our local regiment, The Border Regiment, deployed to the disputed territory between that country and British India in the [more…]
Arts
Jinnie’s Story, Book Eight – Chapter Twenty
Jinnie sat in her Crawley office and finished her breakfast bap, bought from the sandwich van. She enjoyed a sausage and fried egg bap and a large coffee on every visit to DKL; it was [more…]