Month: January 2016

Democratic Principles

  My house has what estate agents call “all the usual offices”; a strange expression as it has everything except an office. This drawing was done by Mike Stiff, of Stiff + Trevillion, in 1984. It’s a late Victorian terraced house with some original features, including a functioning coal hole in the path leading up… Continue reading Democratic Principles

How To Be One-Up

If you are unaware that Shakespeare died on 23rd April 1616, that state of innocence will not last long. The Bard will be impossible to escape this year, like a virulent influenza. I propose to inoculate you with a small dose that may protect you against getting the willies.

Let Us Pray

Increasingly, the BBC World Service provides less provincial and more interesting news than the BBC UK newsroom and their analysis is more intelligent. One such item caught my ear this morning.

The Little Blitz

I wrote recently about the Blitz. The worst of it was over by May 1941 but in 1944 there was what became known as The Little Blitz.

Published
Categorised as History

Soft Power

Lord Bates is a Conservative party Life Peer in the House of Lords. He is a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office.

School Stories

It is striking how many successful authors started off by writing school stories: P G Wodehouse, The Pothunters; Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall; Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim, though it is set at university.

Tally Ho!

This is a sambhur. It seems to be taking an intelligent interest in the photo-shoot. When the Ooty (Ootacamund) Hunt was formed in 1835 it was their quarry.

A Room With A View

  Never judge a wine by its label is an adage that doesn’t apply in today’s post. The label in question is pictured above and if you’d like to know the back-story read on.

More Chronicles of War

On the evening of Sunday 29th December 1940, seventy-five years ago, there was low cloud over the English Channel and low tide on the Thames. Being a Sunday evening the buildings in the City were mostly locked up and empty. The Luftwaffe had waited for these conditions to launch a devastating firestorm on the City… Continue reading More Chronicles of War