My father was an army man. Whilst my brothers and I were running around pretending to be commandos, cowboys or invading spacemen, someone asked him what he would do if this country re-introduced conscription into the armed forces. Emigrate, he…
Last Friday was another one of those dates that have had a red circle round it on my calendar for some time now. I like this tradition. You have your favourite picture calendar on the wall and you get that…
An American downtown skyscraper on a dull Sunday morning. I spent some memorable times in the great Northern state of Minnesota, both good and bad. I was thinking about this whilst sorting through some old photographs which I have just…
The British newspapers have been discussing the death of a long-running TV show today. I am trying not to be too parochial in this blog but the show, the long-running arts series, The South Bank Show, is one that has…
I am feeling under threat today. I have never claimed that I was extra good at much but those few things where I seem to be above average, well, they are close to my heart. I feel I should hang…
I went to China in February 2008. It was my first visit to Asia and it was unsurprisingly one of those great moments in life that changes your perspective. The purpose of the trip was to study a branch of…
I sometimes think that the French might be more joyful than the English. They don’t look it but they have the right expressions for when your heart races and you feel like jumping for joy.Maybe I don’t know enough English…
May Day, the middle of the year, is a special moment in folk culture. It falls half way between the Winter and Summer Solstices and, certainly, in England, is one of the most beautiful times of the year. Spring is…
So it was six months ago today that a pleasant, high-spirited morning went blank on me. As today is a significant milestone in my recovery, I thought I might revisit the events which have permanently changed my life. I remember…
I don’t want to write about Swine ‘Flu. The news round the World is already full of it telling us that there really could be, that frightening word, a pandemic. I don’t want to write about it because every time…