Once again... we're knocking out a review of our year with lots of ups and one massive down (left until the end). We've added in-page links to posts made earlier in the year, in case you're really, really interested. If nothing else you might come away with ideas for a holiday or two. *** And…
We were visiting friends on the South Coast when they said “Would you like to see the church at Old Romney?”. I’m always up for viewing a church. Saint Clement’s, Old Romney Derek Jarman is buried in the churchyard of Saint Clement’s but the interior of this ancient church is worth seeing. There is a…
I’ve been thinking about 1982... down Memory Lane, along a tortuous, circuitous, cul-de-sac, but such is the way my mind seems to work. Bruce Taylor has written a biography of my former Spanish professor, Sir Peter Russell, who died in 2006. I’ve just reviewed it for the The Queen’s College website. Sir Peter, his pupil…
Here we are again... bashing out a review of our year with its ups and downs. It would have been a challenge to put all this on a card. There are some in-page links to posts made earlier in the year. Or you can skip to the end if we're boring you. If nothing else…
It may have passed you by that last week was the 50th Anniversary of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution. On 25 April 1974, suddenly and almost bloodlessly, the Estado Novo, a fascist dictatorship that had endured for 48 years, came to an end. I was a first-year student at The Queen's College Oxford at that time: the…
I knew something was afoot a soon as I picked up the envelope. In the past it has contained a short letter to say that everything was fine - which is what Anne was told the previous week. But this time there was a longer letter with a leaflet all about bowel cancer screening and…
As I have already recounted (at least once) in 1979, on my return to Oxford from London, I accidentally co-founded a band you've never heard of called One for the Wall. We never got a recording contract but it was fun while it lasted. We went our own ways a few years later, but -…
Is November the most miserable month of the year? Dark (even in London) by four in the afternoon, raining more often than not, and often surprisingly cold. That the clocks have just gone back hardly alleviates the gloomy atmosphere. And the knowledge that winter hasn't even started yet. Oh dear. Only a couple of months…
I swim at an indoor pool every Sunday morning, except when I am away from home or have another reasonable excuse, such as I can't be bothered. Apart from walking, it is the only regular exercise I take. As I plough up and down, which I find intensely boring, I need to have something to…
I had visited to Athens twice before: once in 1971, when I was 16, and once with my wife Anne, in 2000. Only for a couple of days in each case; all I can really remember is traipsing up to the Acropolis and visiting two or three museums. This year we decided to spend four…
The Wight Stuff 