Biography
My Time in Parliament
Having left for an idyllic childhood in a Leicestershire village at the age of 18 months, I returned to London in 1968 when I was posted to the MoD’s Army Contracts HQ in Southwark as [more…]
Biography
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 15
COMMENT ON THE COMMENTS ON PART 14 A few readers said they appreciated my responses to comments on Part 13 so I do the same again for Part 14. Bobo provided a link for Foxoles [more…]
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 14
RESPONSE TO COMMENTS ON PART 13 Once again I thank those who commented on Part 13 and particularly the three or four who correctly pointed out my mistake in inverting the description of the speed [more…]
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 13
A METEOROLOGICAL DIGRESSION Life on a small yacht is lived much closer to nature than most people in developed countries usually experience. That is particularly true about weather in its many forms and I’d like [more…]
Biography
The Real Goldfinger?
Whilst doing some research for a future article in the ‘Going for Gold’ series I came across an interesting story which I thought would make for a separate article in its own right. Charles W. [more…]
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 12
PREFACE REFLECTIONS ON FREEDOM Oh dear! 12 April 2021 is the first day we’ve been let out of our cages and I’m frightened. The world outside seems a big, scary and uninteresting place – please [more…]
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 11
AN OUT OF SEQUENCE REFLECTION There were more than 3,000 comments on Part 10 of my story some 22 hours after it was posted and I think that is probably a number that’s fairly typical [more…]
Arts
Book Review: Some Fantastic Place – My Life In and Out of Squeeze by Chris Difford
This is the story of Chris Difford, a ne’er-do-well written off as ‘backward’ at school who went on to achieve fame and fortune as the founder and lyricist of the band Squeeze. Squeeze had a [more…]
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 10
RESPONSE TO COMMENTS ON PART 9 and a COVID DIGRESSION Yes FOXOLES I’m afraid you did miss something – perhaps my account was too oblique. The double in South Africa existed only in the [more…]