17th Century
Postcard From Dorset, Part One
Mrs C. and I are lucky enough to have friends in Devon who have a spare bedroom which they are happy for us to occupy a couple of times a year. We’d visited them at [more…]
History
20th Century
The History of Pop Music – 1991
Featured song: Paul Rodgers – All Right Now (1991), [feat. Brian May, Steve Vai & Joe Satriani Apologies for the break in articles over the last few months, I have been exceptionally busy. Normal service [more…]
20th Century
The Malayan Campaign 1941 – 1942. Part Six
The Battle of Muar 14th – 22nd January 1942 The Battle of Muar was the last major battle of the Malayan campaign and was centred around the Gemensa Bridge on the Muar River in Johore [more…]
21st Century
Larry’s Diary Week Two
Monday No more talk of getting a Dog to report, I can only hope they have shelved the idea. I will be extra nice to the Blonde and his female for the next few days [more…]
20th Century
The Malayan Campaign 1941 – 1942. Part Five
The Battle of Kampar 30th December 1941 – 2nd January 1942 It was clear by now that the British and Commonwealth forces were facing an enemy that was adept in asymmetric warfare and the Japanese [more…]
20th Century
Armalites and Memories
On the 8th of May 2019 like any self respecting observer of terrorism in Northern Ireland, I experienced several minutes of breathing difficulties, crying and the inability to talk, as I rolled around the floor of [more…]
20th Century
The Unsung Canine Heroes of World War II
In 1945, a Collie-German Shepherd-Siberian Husky mix called Chips returned home to Pleasantville, New York. He’d seen North Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany, but he was not on a tour or a vacation, he was [more…]
20th Century
The Malayan Campaign 1941 – 1942. Part Four
The Loss of Northern Malaya By now the Japanese Army was deployed in Siam and Northern Malaya and the British decided to conduct an exercise akin to rearranging deckchairs of the Titanic. They formed the [more…]
20th Century
The Spratly Islands Incident, 1983
With Hong Kong being in the news it has brought back a memorable incident at the beginning of my working life as a radio news reporter in the former British colony. It’s April 1983. I’d [more…]