Cycling
West Country Rides, One
It takes a week to cycle from Penzance to Berwick. It took me 40 years. Because on the way, I wanted to include every town in England, in what amounted to some two years of [more…]
Literature
19th Century
Book review: Custer’s Trials, by T.J. Stiles
Writing another biography of Custer (1839-1876) is, as Stiles says, a bit like walking round Grand Central Station trying to find a piece of floor someone hasn’t already stepped on. Such is the fascination with [more…]
Literature
1001 ways to popular parties
When clearing my parents house a few years ago I went through the process of sorting things either to be taken to my mother’s new house, kept or sent to a charity shop or the [more…]
Literature
An Old Man’s Musings Part Twenty-Six
The Seekers were my favourite group and, playing a video of ‘The Carnival is Over’ the other day, I read the whole of the introduction which was as follows: ‘The Seekers, bathed in the warm [more…]
Animals
Larry’s diary, Week Two Hundred And Seventy Nine
Monday Good morning on this Bank Holiday Monday. It is nice and quiet here in Number Ten with only a small crew on. The girl who was on feeding duty this morning was not very [more…]
Christianity
An Appreciation Of The Papacy of Francis I
Might every age get the Pope it deserves? If so, then what of the Age of Francis I? Jorge Mario Bergoglio, once Archbishop of Buenos Aires and the latest Bishop of Rome, died on Easter [more…]
Fiction
The Past is Present, Chapter Four
The Range Rover was ready for them, Dave put the holdall with the weapons in the boot, Sally’s heart was thumping. They set off driving through the Saturday night traffic, as they drove east, the [more…]
Arts
Jinnie’s Story, Book Eight – Chapter Nine
The last full day of the cruise was a sea day as the ship chugged the 150 miles from Martinique to Barbados very slowly. The twins spent the morning by the pool with everyone else, [more…]
20th Century
Book Review: Soldaten, ‘On fighting, killing and dying’
This book, originally published in 2012, is based on the discovery of transcripts of covert surveillance of German prisoners of war in WW2, found initially in archives in Great Britain and latterly in archives in [more…]