20th Century
Scout Moor
In weather fit for neither man nor beast, we climb through a northern landscape, sculpted from rock by water, and the detritus from receding ice, to emerge into sunlight. And there we come across a [more…]
History
20th Century
Of Scherbius, Balme, Lee, Long, Pearce, Dolley, Roe, Wileman, Hargreaves, Trotter, Fasson, Grazier, & Brown….
It is indeed strange that the names of the people listed in the article title should remain so completely unknown today. Great innovators of the Weimar Republic during the 1920s, people like Gropius in architecture, [more…]
Authoritarianism
Veg Growing In A Pandemic (Is Enough Ever Enough)
Firstly, let’s get something out of the way. I never was a violent man. Even in my youth, when a “scrap” was seen as a rite of passage, I did my level best to avoid [more…]
20th Century
Book Review: Mani, Travels in the Southern Peloponnese by Patrick Leigh-Fermor
It is no secret that I absolutely love the writing of Patrick Leigh-Fermor, a man whose life would have been wonderfully interesting even if he had never published a word. I sketched out something of [more…]
20th Century
A History of Pop Music Albums – 1995
A History of Pop Music Albums – 1995 Featured Album: Pink Floyd – Shine On You Crazy Diamond This is a series of articles looking at albums from 1960 to 1999. Just cannot go on [more…]
Arts
Film Review: The Third Man
The Third Man is a wonderfully evocative, innovative, and fascinating film, directed by Carol Reed with the screenplay by Graham Greene, set in the dystopian ruins and chaos of immediate post-WW2 Vienna, which at that [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Romania – Part Four
Part Three of the Postcard from Romania covered our visits to the indoor and outdoor sections of the terrific Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography (Muzeul Etnografic al Transilvaniei), a jaunt to Satu Mare on the wild [more…]
20th Century
Enigma deception
A typical three wheeled Enigma with inspection cover open and showing the three wheels in position. When the Second World War began, three wheels became five. There is a scene in the film The Imitation [more…]
Arts
Rosebud in June
Here’s a welcome to the busting-out-all-over month of June. As you know, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. An ache for home according to the Greeks, and perfectly understandable if you were in your [more…]