Fiction
Wildfowling: The Spirit of the Marsh
Evening flight had been a total loss and the bad weather looked to be closing in fast. Jay the Spaniel cut a piteous figure, highlighted as he was in the feeble light from a head [more…]
Literature
Animals
Larry’s Diary, One Hundred and Seventeen
Monday These Monday mornings seem to come around quicker and quicker for your intrepid cat reporter. One good thing about the family being back in residence is that the Little Otter has got her way [more…]
20th Century
Mystery Album, Part Seven
In part four of Mystery Album, I speculated that the above photograph (taken by our mystery family aboard the wherry Palace) was of a Norfolk Broads maltings. Judging by the order of the photos, it [more…]
Fiction
Jinnie’s Story – Book Two, Chapter Nineteen
Jinnie parked on the off-street parking in front of her house. She had told the flatmates, well technically now her housemates, that she had rented a four-bedroom furnished house on their behalf. Over the summer [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 28th October 2021 The Panel: Simon Clarke (Conservative) Lucy Frazer (Conservative) Bridget Phillipson (Labour) Sir Howard Davies (NatWest) Dr Miatta Fahnbulleh (New Economics Foundation) Jenny Campbell (Businesswoman) Venue: Stockport Your humble author has [more…]
Biography
A Leicestershire Lad
Watching formal schooling, community spirit and childhood and family life in general being relentlessly trashed in recent years has made me think more and more about my growing-up years in a small Leicestershire village between [more…]
Arts
Book Review: The Man Who Hated Walking, by Overend Watts
Peter Overend Watts, who may be familiar to some as the ex bassist of Mott The Hoople (a band once described as looking like ‘hod-carriers in drag’ by Roger Taylor of Queen), was a rock [more…]
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 26
Welcome back time-travellers. We have landed in mid-August 1997 at Scalloway on the Mainland of Shetland and are about to set sail for Fair Isle. Before we cast off from the Boating Club’s pontoon I’d [more…]
20th Century
Postcard From Summer 1954, Part One – Bournemouth
In 1954, the Manchester Evening News launched a “Special Investigation” and tasked my uncle, John Alldridge, with answering the question – Holidaymakers, do you get value for your MONEY? What follows is his report on [more…]