Drinking
Cocktails At Six
The nights have drawn in and once more we are approaching that strange time of year when apparently everyone is going to parties, or in my case not. So, if any of you are going [more…]
Books
Biography
Book Review: My Life With Rock N’ Roll People by Mike Nicholls
Swiss Bob kindly sent me a copy of this book to review – so here you go. I had expected the book to be a series of articles that Nicholls had previously published in the [more…]
16th Century
Tracy Borman: Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I
It is always a bonus when a book takes one or more well-known figures and makes you see them in an entirely new light. Tracy Borman has achieved just this with her dual biography of [more…]
Book Review
Alanbrooke’s War Diaries edited by Arthur Bryant
I never really had a deep interest in WWII, my knowledge was sketchy and based on WWII films. Of course, I had imbibed that Hitler was the devil incarnate and Churchill was a national hero. [more…]
Book Review
Anger Is An Energy, by John Lydon
‘They put a hot wire to my head Cos of the things I did and said They made these feelings go away Model citizen in every way’ (From Anger Is An Energy, the song) Given [more…]
Book Review
How Not To Be A Political Wife, by Sarah Vine
Here it is, hot off the press – a peek straight into the heart of Cameroonian Britain, through the eyes of a true insider. Sarah Vine was married to Michael Gove throughout the whole débacle, [more…]
16th Century
Stories from the Age of Sail
I was going to call this article ‘Wooden Ships and Iron Men’ but then I discovered that Avalon Hill beat me to it about fifty years ago, so ‘Stories from the Age of Sail’ will [more…]
Book Review
Book Review: I Survived, by Victoria Cilliers
The recent tragic suicide by parachute jump of experienced skydiver Jade Damarell, widely reported in the media, brought to mind the Cilliers case of a few years ago, which Victoria Cilliers goes into in this [more…]
Book Review
East West Street
In 2022 I reviewed a book called “The Ratline” by Philippe Sands (Book Review: The Ratline). A book which taught me so much about Nazi Germany and the general history of WWII in Europe. East [more…]