20th Century
A History of Pop Music – 1955
Featured song: Bill Haley & His Comets with “Rock Around the Clock”. This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 [more…]
20th Century
20th Century
Desert Mysteries, Part Two
In Part 1, I described how, from the signatures on the front cover of a June 1939 edition of “Blackwood’s Magazine” purchased from an antiques fair, I found that the original owner, Edward Davis Moore, [more…]
20th Century
American Journey 1952, Part Two – Providence
Over the main entrance of Providence City Hall is a bust of one Roger Williams, the founder of this city. You can see another representation of him in Roger Williams Park, where yesterday the youth [more…]
20th Century
Postcard From Peter Hitchens, Part Five
I’ve been following Daily Mail columnist and author Peter Hitchens – literally. The surprise being we only recently fell into correspondence. Both of us are keen on railways and church, enjoyed minor public school and [more…]
20th Century
Desert Mysteries, Part One
Some years ago, for only a few pounds, I purchased from a local antiques fair a June 1939 edition of “Blackwood’s Magazine”, this magazine and miscellany (pictured) ran from 1817 to 1980. I bought it [more…]
20th Century
In The Steps of The First Army, Part Seven
“In his seventh and final article JOHN ALLDRIDGE writes of Tunis and the triumphant end of a campaign.” – Manchester Evening News, November 23 1949 Tunis, Monday I thought I saw a ghost in Tunis [more…]
20th Century
Going-Postal Eurovision Song Contest Special
Who could have thought in the middle years of the twentieth century that the then-nascent Eurovision Song Contest could, a mere seven decades hence, be described by serious commentators as ‘noncing s***’? Albeit the commentator [more…]
20th Century
In The Steps of The First Army, Part Six
“In the sixth of his articles John Alldridge writes of Bizerta, where a song was born, an Army vindicated itself, and a gigantic building plan went awry.” – Manchester Evening News, November 22 1949 Bizerta, [more…]
20th Century
The Death Railway, Part Five
David Lean’s 1957 film depicted the bridge as a significant timber structure located in the deep jungle, spanning a narrow river featuring rocks and rapids. This is of course a work of fiction and was [more…]