20th Century
Memories of My Early Childhood
I was born in 1950 and I have very happy memories of my early years. I was lucky I guess. We lived in a four-bedroom semi-detached house in Church End, Finchley with decent sized front, [more…]
History
Biography
Herodotus and the Histories – Part One
Having finally fulfilled a previous and somewhat rash promise to write about Thucydides and his account of the Peloponnesian War, I thought it about time I write about his forerunner, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who is [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Part Three
The above photograph appears in our family Nostalgia Album captioned “Mauretania Southampton 1939”. Although every Big Boy’s Big Book of Big Ships says something different, the photograph, languishing in the Worth-Saying family album for 83 [more…]
20th Century
My Legends of Pop Music – Part Thirty-Two – The Small Faces
If get this right, there will be many cover versions by future bands. I shall try and link live versions if they exist from the tellybox or a film, the sound quality may not be [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – March 1942
We reach March 1942 and again, there is not much happening on the ground. It all seems to have ground to a halt and once more Churchill is not amused. The Royal Navy is still [more…]
Engineering
Three Gyroscopes – Part 4
Introduction As a child I loved playing about with magnets – I still do. They can move heavy objects – such as lifting cars at a scrap yard. They can also move light (-weight!) objects [more…]
21st Century
The Stockwell Shooting – A Failure of C3I?*
Operation Kratos In 2001 international terrorist events directed security services to conclude that terrorist events involving suicide bombers, were not only likely but sadly inevitable in any country. Among many other agencies, the Metropolitan Police [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Part Two
The above photograph was taken on March 25th 1936. How can we be so certain? The marquee to the left can be seen at the beginning of a video clip below, the occasion being the [more…]
20th Century
My Legends of Pop Music – Part Thirty One – Jim Reeves
My Legends of Pop Music – Part Thirty-One – Jim Reeves If get this right, there will be many cover versions by future bands. I shall try and link live versions if they exist from [more…]