Barefoot Snail Crushing in the Rose Garden
There are a lot of people out there who think that gardening is all about pretty flowers and sitting in a deckchair admiring them. I used to think that a bit when I moved away from a house with a…
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Vee have vays of making you laugh – fat naked laughing Germans are more fun than thin efficient ones
It is too easy I know to fall back on silly national stereotypes but no matter how hard I tried this morning I could not stop myself smiling at the news about those whingeing German soldiers in Afghanistan. Now the…
Twittering and Blogging is making a difference in Iran
Amazing scenes in Iran. Awful ones too of course but how inspiring to see all those people taking to the streets in protest – so many that the police and the army, in the end just had to stand back…
The Sussex Countryside – home to opera and drag
The landlord of the pub in the village where I used to live had his fiftieth birthday party yesterday. My old house and the pub were separated by a memorable line of Scots Pine trees, the view from my windows…
Optimism on a grey day
It is one of those days. Getting towards the middle of June when England is traditionally looking its best with all that fresh greenery, the high point for our wild flowers and, of course, the time for endless blue skies,…
Stammering and understanding – words can be tough
I know that it sounds so terribly arty-poncy but I have been writing a fair amount of poetry recently and, even worse than that, I have been doing some poetry reading too. Heaven help him, people who know me will…
Smiles or eggs? Which is the best way to defeat the Oppressors?
Perfectly good chicken’s eggs went to waste yesterday in London. Some anti-Fascist protesters threw them at the two new British National Party MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) and sent them scurrying away from a planned press conference. The eggs…
The Headache after those European Elections
This site owes a great debt to Mirek Topolanek, the former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Last week I wrote a series of pieces on Czech subjects because, well, I just felt like it – and why not? He…
Hating clarinets and flip flops is just silly
Someone I used to know told me once that he hated clarinets. Why? I thought thinking of the wonderfully languid opening of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and then Mozart’s heart-breakingly beautiful Clarinet Quintet. As is usually the case when people…
Ahhhhhh Grasshopper
Whilst all around me are talking about the passing of the Gordon Brown government here in the United Kingdom, I thought of Mark Twain’s adage “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” If only Gordon Brown could come…