20th Century
Report From Israel, 1957 – Part Three
In 1957 my uncle, John Alldridge visited Israel for the Birmingham Mail. This is the third of his reports. – Jerry F The first you see of it is a row of whitewashed oil drums, [more…]
History
Arts
Christmas, How Did Yours Go?
I saw a piece to camera from Sonia Poulton before Christmas who felt Hollywood was less than helpful in its portrayal of a Christmas as a sugary confection of unreasonable expectation. True of course because [more…]
20th Century
Postcard From Kiruna
Having been presented with the key to the door, my wilful 21-year-old self used the opportunity to close the lock tightly behind him and allow the trade winds to billow his sails north, all the [more…]
Arts
The Staffordshire Oatcake: a regional delicacy
When someone mentions the word ‘oatcake’, what is it that you first think of? I’d be rather surprised if many of you will not, like I used to do, immediately think of the commercially produced [more…]
20th Century
Grand Scarborough
Scarborough Beach Scarborough Beach is a renowned seaside destination known for its two sweeping sandy bays divided by the iconic Scarborough Castle. The North Bay offers a quieter ambience, while the South Bay is livelier, [more…]
19th Century
Meet The Family
In part one of this odyssey into the past, you’ll recall me being curious and excited in anticipation of the results of a Christmas present DNA test: Who Do I Think I Am? In part [more…]
20th Century
The culture destroyers
They are everywhere these damned people. More dangerous to society than a knife wielding Jihadi, more potent than radioactive fallout, these individuals more frequently than not look just like you or I. Some are fat, [more…]
20th Century
Whitby – that was – part two
It always pleases me to know that Whitby comes from an Old Norse word: Hwitebi, which means ‘white settlement’. The name Whitby came into use around the 12th century, prior to that it is recorded [more…]
20th Century
The Muslim Brotherhood, Part Nine
The Anglo-American Alliance (AAA) led powers used an old tactic of population displacement throughout the wars in the Middle East. They were putting into practice Kelly Greenhill’s theories concerning “Strategic Engineered Migration as a Weapon [more…]