Biography
Gmbd, It’s All Very Perplexing
I’ve said most of this before but I’m putting it together to explain why I think there is something else going on, might not be obvious. Introduction When I was really, really little I was [more…]
Biography
Biography
Off to prison under Military aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA)
Let me start at the beginning of my knowledge. I spent my 21st Birthday in Prison. A simple statement. Mind you, as I had spent my 19th Birthday at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, my [more…]
Arts
My Apprenticeship, Part Two
Part one went through the first two years of my drawing office apprenticeship with Babcock and Wilcox Ltd. During the second year, Babcock and Wilcox Ltd became Babcock and Wilcox (Operations) Limited. The first of [more…]
20th Century
An early airman’s tragic adventure
Early 1930: It had been a depressing English winter – cold, dark and wet for weeks on end. In West Wickham, a young man who had left Australia five years earlier and settled here in [more…]
Biography
Hashtag Henry!
It is the time of year when the wife launches her annual campaign to get me to agree to replace our old Henry the Hoover with a modern upright machine. As ever my response is [more…]
Arts
My Apprenticeship, Part One
I hated school, but I enjoyed technical drawing. One reason was that I got it from the very first day. For some reason, I could visualise in 3D those flat drawings. I guess my brain [more…]
America
Book Review: Kick by Paula Byrne
The subtitle of this book is ‘the true story of Kick Kennedy, JFK’s forgotten sister, and the heir to Chatsworth’, although personally I think the title ‘forgotten sister’ might be more accurately applied to JFK’s [more…]
18th Century
20th Century
A Different Class of Murder, by Laura Thompson
We Brits love a mystery, and they don’t come much more mysterious than Lord Lucan. There are lots of books out there about the Lucan case – those of us who were around then will [more…]