Animals
Larry’s Diary, Week Two Hundred And Forty-Four
Monday Good morning and what a fabulous one it is, not a cloud in the sky and my it’s warm. I am a bit disappointed with the Olympics so far, as I write this we [more…]
Paris
Animals
Larry’s Diary – Week Two Hundred And Forty-Three
Monday Good morning and it is not a very nice morning here in London, although it’s quite warm it is very dull, and I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if it rained again. Obviously, [more…]
20th Century
The 19:13 From Gare de Lyon
In a previous edition gleaned from my family’s 1950s road trips album, from the top of the Eiffel Tower we noticed an interesting double-decker bridge carrying both a road and a railway across the River [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Seine Bridges
As we reach the end of our 1952 Nostalgia Album adventure to Gibraltar and back, my father and his parents remain at the top of the Eiffel Tower gazing at the more distant of the [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, The Trocadero
On their Nostalgia Album 1952 road trip, my father and his parents have reached the top of the Eiffel Tower en route to Carlisle after visiting Aunty Lil in Gibraltar and taking in the healing [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Paris
This week’s first picture is of the unmistakable Eiffel tower. In 1952, without a phone mast, the landmark was 984 ft high with a viewing area 906 ft from the ground. We shall assume my [more…]
Authoritarianism
The Great Confinement
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. C.S. Lewis Greetings [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 13
Over chai in the subcontinent, balut in the tropics or roast swan in an Oxbridge refectory the topic of conversation might turn to ‘given the chance, would you kill baby Hitler?’ In Latin this would [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 12
I had an uncle who was an excellent chap from a very proud, hardworking but rather modest background. He’s the one who was on the railway (a reserved profession) during the war but managed to [more…]