20th Century
American Journey 1952, Part Four – Atlanta
On a chill November night in 1864 a small boy lay trembling behind a rock — not a hundred yards from where I am writing this — and watched a city burn. It was the [more…]
Travel
16th Century
Postcard From The King’s Gallery
On our day trip to Edinburgh, Mrs AWS and I de-trained on Waverley’s Platform 9 at 12:17 prompt. While a disappointing first-class breakfast rattled in our tums, we allowed ourselves to be swept out of [more…]
20th Century
American Journey 1952, Part Three – Washington
John Doe is Asking Awkward Questions The last thing I expected to pick up in this capital city of a great Republic (“the greatest Republic on God’s Footstool,” as I heard a Senator from Illinois [more…]
Arts
Postcard From Edinburgh
Gentleman and lady travellers of a certain age may be divided into two tribes: Princess or Market. I’ve always been a Princess man. Let me explain. Arrival at Edinburgh Waverley always drew me up the [more…]
20th Century
American Journey 1952, Part Two – Providence
Over the main entrance of Providence City Hall is a bust of one Roger Williams, the founder of this city. You can see another representation of him in Roger Williams Park, where yesterday the youth [more…]
20th Century
American Journey 1952, New York
Of course, it’s impossible to do justice to New York in a few hundred words. Its like saying the Pacific is deep or that Everest is high or that Helen of Troy was a pretty [more…]
Arts
To Wawa and Beyond
The rooster started crowing at 3 am, which then set the dogs off. The barking went on for a while then a motorbike without a silencer went roaring past. It must have been 3-45am when [more…]
Arts
The Lighthouse of The Pacific
Leaving the Pan-American highway and heading west beyond the urban sprawl of second city Santa Ana, we follow the route of the El Salvador Railway Company’s Ahuachapan branch line which we discovered last time. Nothing [more…]
20th Century
Report From Israel, 1957 – Part Six
In 1957 my uncle, John Alldridge visited Israel for the Birmingham Mail. This is the last of his reports. – Jerry F When an Israeli defines a civilian as a soldier on leave for eleven [more…]