I had a long one-on-one lunch and even longer conversation with a former colleague this week. The theme of memory, and loss thereof - personal, cultural and institutional - quickly emerged from our discussion of couple of recent incidents. He'd recently met, by chance, an old friend in a part of London he rarely visits…
I was 19 in 1974. The year began inauspiciously with the Three Day Week, power cuts, a miners’ strike and a General Election. It was a matter of debate whether Ted Heath’s government was really in power or just pretending. I can’t say it bothered me much, apart from when the pubs were shut. The…
I didn't post in August - not once. Not because I am dead, or anything like that, but because I and my blog were on holiday in France (La Bréchoire, Charente) for the whole month... the whole blessed month! I was so busy doing nothing that I lost the will to blog. Once you stop…
Anne and I were in France. It was just the second first time I'd been on holiday in France (apart from a week in Montmartre, 12 years earlier, dossing down in a friend's garret) although I was 35! Put that down to all those years studying Spanish and Portuguese. We were on our honeymoon (aw!)…
Over the last couple of years I've been back to [the] Wirral many times. So I've been able to take little trips down Memory Lane. Last week, while walking from Moreton Rail Station, I took a back route to avoid a busy roundabout, and came across a building I hadn't seen for over 40 years.…
Nigella Lawson says that the thump of loud music now found in some of the most fashionable - and expensive - restaurants leaves her unable to taste her food. She says she is "allergic to all noise including music in shops and restaurants… It is utterly draining. And it drowns out the taste of food.…
My first visit to Greece was in April 1971. I was 16¼. Although I’d just dropped Greek for Spanish at A Level (and never regretted it), I was still studying Latin and Ancient History. My former schoolteacher Eddie O’Hara, subsequently a Labour MP, had the ambitious and slightly mad idea of taking a dozen teenage…
Yes, that's where we are - so there won't be a blog this week. But there should be plenty to talk about next time. In the meantime... thanks to the two loyal friends who've already reviewed my ebook on Amazon. If you are one of the many millions of potential fans who haven't yet read…
When did the First World Ear end? The answer is, it depends on where you were living or stationed. It was only when I started researching Herne Hill's casualties that I realised how many had died after 1918. Often it was as a result of disease, gassing or wounds sustained during 1914-18, but many were…
I was delighted to see my old friend Eric last weekend. Eric and I grew up on the same street in Upton - where my parents still live. But we had not seen each other for more than 40 years. Whereas he went to Liverpool University to study law and still lives in Wirral, I…
The Wight Stuff 