Literature
Miss Pronter’s Prescient Verses
My Dear Friend, Miss. Pronter, has forgiven, but hardly forgotten, my betise in allowing some of her verses to be put forward here, under a mangled version of her name (‘You claim to be a [more…]
Literature
Arts
The Swaling, Part Seventy
As soon as Mr Hong Gildong allowed the doors to be opened, two hours after auctioneer Mr Tan had departed, there was a stampede along the dark and expensively carpeted secret underground passage that connected [more…]
Fiction
Jinnie’s Story – Book Two, Chapter Ten
It was around about 4 o’clock on Friday afternoon when Jinnie parked her Mini next to her father’s ageing Audi 80 in the bay cut into the green opposite her family home. For a few [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 26th August 2021 Panel: James Cleverly (Conservative) Lisa Nandy (Labour) Rory Stewart (Former diplomat and author) Nelufar Hedayat (Broadcaster) Mehdi Hasan (Broadcaster) Venue: London Puffins will be relieved to hear that, as the [more…]
20th Century
Behind the Bamboo Curtain, Part Eight
My uncle was a staff reporter for the Manchester Evening News from the late 1940s until his death in 1973. The following is from a series of articles in which he describes his extensive visit [more…]
18th Century
Book Review: Commander
Edward Pellew is a name which will be familiar to many who have read Giles Milton’s marvellous book, ‘White Gold’, about the Barbary white slave trade. That book recounts the life of Thomas Pellow, a [more…]
Conservatives
Growing In A Pandemic; Highs & Lows, Reflections
It’s getting to the time of year in the greenhouse where the majority of the grunt work is done, a time when I can sit back, enjoy the fruits of my haphazard “rough” labour and [more…]
Fiction
The Man Who Played Ross – Part 33
ROSS Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt: He only lived but till he was a man; The which no sooner had his prowess confirm’d In the unshrinking station where he fought, But [more…]
Animals
Larry’s Diary, Week One Hundred and Seven
Monday Morning all. I woke up to thunder and torrential rain this morning but it must have been a passing heavy shower because by the time I had a good stretch, a scratch and stuck [more…]