21st Century
Fred and Doris
Doris said, ‘I heard on the BBC that us old folk are going to be confined to barracks because of that virus. They said it’s for our own safety,’ Doris was 83 and her husband [more…]
Tachybaptus
21st Century
Pandora’s Bug
How long ago it seems! But it is barely four years since I was a senior researcher at Porton Down, sitting on a shiny chair at a varnished desk and tapping the delicate keyboard of [more…]
21st Century
Kazoo Solo
with acknowledgements to Louis MacNeice’s ‘Bagpipe Music’ It’s no go Jeremy, it’s no go the commies, But all we’ve got is a dodgy deal served up to us by Boris. It’s no go the EU, [more…]
19th Century
When Popes Took Coke
The rise and fall of coca wine Coca leaves have been used as a stimulant in South America for over a thousand years, especially in the Andes to overcome the fatigue of living and working [more…]
Conservatives
Dead in a Ditch
You could have been the man who saved the day, And won renown and everlasting fame. Instead of that, you ducked and ran away: Ten years from now, no one will know your name. [more…]
19th Century
A Bear’s Diary – Part 28
June 3rd, 1811. The city of New York lies in a broad river estuary whose wooded slopes give no hint of what will appear around the corner. The river is divided into several channels, forming [more…]
19th Century
A Bear’s Diary – Part 27
April 24th, 1811. Our wanderings have brought us to Trinidad, the largest and almost the easternmost of the chain of islands which dot the edge of the Caribbean Sea. Skirting the western edge of the [more…]
19th Century
A Bear’s Diary – Part 26
February 22nd, 1811. Late last night, as we were heading north-west in a moderate wind, a tremendous grinding crash threw the whole ship askew, and we found ourselves drifting with the sails flapping dangerously, threatening [more…]
19th Century
A Bear’s Diary – Part 25
December 25th, 1810. We celebrate our first Christmas at sea – or at least, the English humans and bears of our party do, for the Russian crew prefer to wait until their laggard calendar produces [more…]