Biography
Sailing my life away, part 4
I was able to reach a conclusion on the most suitable hull material and shape for my yacht based mainly on what may be called desk research – reading books and magazines. To some extent [more…]
Travelogue
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 3
Jacques (As You Like it, Act 2 Scene 7) describes seven ages of man. In looking back on my own life I can identify with the first four and, being near the early stages of the [more…]
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 2
It may interest some readers who commented on my first article to know that I was very conscious of Coleridge’s poem when choosing my pen-name because a few years after the events described here, whilst [more…]
Biography
Sailing my life away, part 1
This article is the first of what may become a series if it attracts enough interest. It’s title has been inspired by a song performed by the Everly Brothers that was Number One on the [more…]
20th Century
A Barren Shore, Part Two
An even greater slab of armour plate than the one we had stumbled across decades before, stood upright blankly showing its wounds, punched through and scored by shot, rusty red, the memorial to those Finns [more…]
20th Century
A Barren Shore, Part One
This is a personal memoir of several visits to the far north and going realisation of what had always been before my eyes, unseen and recognised. I am not an historian and certainly not of [more…]
Arts
Staycation; A Postcard From The Cairngorms (Part Two)
Following our trip on Loch Ness on the Tuesday we went into Inverness to eat and get a beer, the food (a reasonable enough burger) was passable and the beer was by Innis & Gunn, [more…]
Arts
Staycation; A Postcard From The Cairngorms (Part One)
Having held out as long as we dare we eventually, and somewhat reluctantly, cancelled our planned return to the beautiful island of Zakynthos and set about looking for somewhere to visit a little closer to [more…]
America
The Biggest Little City in the World
More than a century and a half ago, westbound gold rush settlers had to cross the Truckee River, a few miles to the east of the California / Nevada state line. Ahead of them lay [more…]