In 2020 I went to Pompeii and then to Troy
Troy myth and reality. At the beginning of 2020, I spent a week in Naples and visited the fateful ruins at Pompeii where you have to think about the disaster that befell the folks there in in the year 79…
Category Opinions
Wolfie Caged
How I survived lockdown. I have finally got round to writing a blog now that, wisely or foolishly, the great British lockdown is being eased. Until now, I haven’t quite managed to write about this, the strangest of times. I…
Claiming my Irish inheritance
Most people regard me as a typical Englishman, but, in reality I am, like many people born in the British Isles, a mixture of English, Scottish and Irish. It just happens that I grew up in Sussex in Southern England,…
Remembering Peter Fonda – the easy rider
I was sad to hear of Peter Fonda’s death, not just because he starred in Easy Rider, one of my favourite films, or just because he was unusual for a Hollywood star (in those days) to take an active role…
50 years after the Stonewall riots – sometimes actions speak louder than words.
Reading about the Stonewall Riots on its fiftieth anniversary makes me feel a mixture of emotions. It’s great that something life-changing for so many people, Gay Liberation, came out of a moment when a smallish group of young put-upon homosexuals…
I like Elizabeth Warren – I hope that doesn’t spook her chances of being the next US President.
Yes, I like Elizabeth Warren. I would’ve preferred her as the Democrat presidential candidate the last time, in 2016, instead of Hillary Clinton, but she didn’t stand. Maybe she should’ve, but, just maybe, her time has arrived this year now…
“You don’t care for anything because you are spoilt”, she said, after a loud crashing sound.
The other night, an audio recording was made of what sounded like a domestic dispute between, Boris Johnson, the UK Conservative Party’s leadership front-runner, and his new girlfriend, Carrie Symonds. Apparently, the recording was made by a concerned neighbour after…
Why do so many of us in the UK feel that our lives have been ransacked?
I haven’t been writing about the state of the United Kingdom for some time now because, well, because it’s just so depressing. I know that there has never been a perfect form of government and that, whether you agree or…
What A Mess: BREXIT, Britain and its Politicians
I may have been shirking a responsibility by avoiding writing blogs about the woeful state of our politics here in the United Kingdom. Maybe I’m a warrior wannabe who just got tired of being on the losing side. Maybe I…
The Art of the Deal: Is there really nothing we won’t stomach for Saudi cash?
Jamal Khashoggi People have said to me recently, here in the UK, that Donald Trump isn’t that bad – or is he? We all suffer from that phenomenon known as news fatigue. Nothing is as shocking as when we…