20th Century
Postcard From Innsbruck
Zurück in den Tag Am I allowed to say that back in the day I loved Austria? Yes, it was too expensive, yes it was full of unrepentant Nazis, and yes the whole place was [more…]
Photography
20th Century
Postcard From West Germany
Donaueschingen Strict privacy laws and the German people’s well-practiced challenges to any risk posed to that privacy means that Street View isn’t available in the Federal Republic. Identifying the locations of old photographs, in this [more…]
20th Century
Deluge at Lynmouth
Over breakfast on the morning of Friday, August 15th 1952, readers of the letters page of the Ilfracombe Chronicle and North Devon News may have noticed the following correspondence from a Mr Cuthbert Burgoyne of [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Seine Bridges
As we reach the end of our 1952 Nostalgia Album adventure to Gibraltar and back, my father and his parents remain at the top of the Eiffel Tower gazing at the more distant of the [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, The Trocadero
On their Nostalgia Album 1952 road trip, my father and his parents have reached the top of the Eiffel Tower en route to Carlisle after visiting Aunty Lil in Gibraltar and taking in the healing [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Paris
This week’s first picture is of the unmistakable Eiffel tower. In 1952, without a phone mast, the landmark was 984 ft high with a viewing area 906 ft from the ground. We shall assume my [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Orléans
In the old photo above we observe Orléans cathedral at the end of a wide cobbled street with a row of cars parked on the right hand side. Not its real name (Basilique Cathédrale Sainte-Croix [more…]
Democracy
A View From The Greenhouse: We’re All “Far Right” Now, Innit?
Two weeks ago, when I commenced to writing my last episode about the trials and tribulations of a lazy, often reluctant veg grower and half hearted forager, I had no idea there’d be a new [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Lourdes
Unlike my father, grandparents and daughter, I’ve never been to Lourdes. Given the proliferation of places of worship that have sprung up around the Pyrenean town since the visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to [more…]