20th Century
Meeting The Queen
I have a little anecdote on meeting The Queen. My late father was born in Lewisham, London and was brought up by working class parents in a council estate. After he got demobbed from the [more…]
Culture
19th Century
Sabrage, or how to show off at parties
You have all seen old Hollywood movies showing Napoleonic cavalry officers celebrating by cutting the tops off of champagne bottles. The name for this is sabrage. As with most things in movies there is some [more…]
Arts
The Detritus of Death
I was thinking about a title for this article for some time and “The Detritus of Death” was the best I could come up with – even if it does sound like a Doctor Who [more…]
Arts
Towers And Lovers
The train from Cartagena is eleven minutes late arriving into Alicante and almost twenty minutes behind schedule by the time it leaves for Zaragoza. Not that anyone minds, it is the way of the things [more…]
21st Century
A View From The Greenhouse; Murder Most Foul
It’s that time again; when we get so far into the season it’s hard to think of “interesting” things to write about where vegetables are concerned, that I haven’t already mentioned at least half a [more…]
19th Century
In Defence of Kipling
‘When the Rudyards cease their Kipling, and the Haggards ride no more…’ was a favoured line in the era of post Imperial breast-beating, when this voluminous and best-selling writer, both in verse and prose was [more…]
Authoritarianism
A View From The Greenhouse; Show Edition (Genies And Bottles)
It’s that time of year again, the ground is supposed to be fecund with the results of six months of rough, lazy gardening, the freezers should be bulging and the soup pan should be constantly [more…]
Arts
Set in Stone
This tale begins, as so many tales do, on a dismal winter’s day. This particular day, a miserably chilly and grey February one, was a decidedly rubbish day. Not only had Mr S and I [more…]
Arts
Long memories at Clashanimud
We are often now asked to believe that European countries have no culture, or even any connection to their own pasts – that they are all lands of immigrants, blank sheets on which anything can [more…]