A self-styled pedant told me yesterday that I had written Marie Celeste instead of Mary Celeste in yesterday’s blog. Thanks for that, corrections are helpful, but I thought how disappointing that a name I had always thought beautiful was maybe…
It is raining here in Sussex. That leaking gutter is making attractive patterns with the water which drips discretely outside my bedroom window and grey roof slates have come into their own, shining in the misty gloom. Over there beyond…
Saturday night in the Royal Albert Hall in London was the scene for the annual goodbye to middle class England’s summer season. Thank God for that! The Last Night of the Proms with its forced fun and embarrassing displays of…
Today is one of those dates with a red circle scribbled around. 9/11 of course, a date which will always resonate with horror and sadness but it is also the day of my next appointment with the neurologist who has…
He was “seconds from freedom” according to Stephen Farrell, the British journalist who was rescued from Taleban hostage-takers yesterday. He was talking about his Afghan translator, 34 year old Sultan Munadi who, apparently was leading Mr. Farrell to freedom with…
Today is the day the digitalised Beatles’ albums are released amid a whole load of publicity, articles about the Fab Four, 60s retrospectives and Me and John/Paul/George or Ringo stories. We are just touching the tip of the iceberg in…
Right. I am feeling very focused about this, OK. How do I keep my martial arts stuff going without over-doing it and setting back my recovering from my brain injury? I wax and wan on this so often and, nearly…
Has your mind ever wandered when you were listening to very serious music about death and transfiguration and, without meaning to, found yourself wishing you were in a French revue club drinking a glass or two of absinthe? I have…
I know that Summer runs well into September and all that but the end of August is still a special moment of transition. It is the end of something: high summer, long days, holiday spirit and langour. It is also…
I ended my brief stay-at-home holiday with a walk up to the top of Chanctonbury Ring in Sussex where you can climb to a height of 783 feet above sea level and where you can see, yes, the sea but…