While King Street, Hammersmith, could not be mistaken for the Champs-Élysées, 8th arrondissement Paris, Hammersmith and Fulham council do a good job looking after the tree-lined streets of our mostly Victorian borough. It’s just their idea of planting a twenty-three storey tower block outside my bedroom window that seems ill-conceived.
A Trunk Call
The Riddle of the Sands
Lord Salisbury (in the latter half of the 19th century): “It is what a farmer would call very light land. We have given the Gallic cockerel an enormous amount of sand. Let him scratch it as he pleases”. Salisbury’s assessment of the value of North Africa to the British Empire proved spot on then. So why… Continue reading The Riddle of the Sands
Coronavirus Chronicle XI
The times they are a-changin’ as Bob Dylan puts it so idiomatically. I used to offer visitors a choice of three gins: London, Plymouth or Cork; rather pretentious and these days gin is distilled all over the place; from Deerness on Orkney to Westward Farm in the Isles of Scilly. Even Co Louth has a distillery… Continue reading Coronavirus Chronicle XI
Fishing & Fighting
Happy Birthday
Catch a Clipper
In 1961 you either had to have a vaccination certificate or quarantine for fourteen days if you arrived in the US from the UK. But you know that, because you read it here in 2017. It looks like next year that’s what will happen again; that’s if an effective vaccine is found. It’s a funny… Continue reading Catch a Clipper
A Call to Palms
Sir Oswald
This portrait of Field Marshal Lord Alexander is by Sir Oswald Birley. As I am more familiar with his grandson, Robin, who I remember starting out selling posh sandwiches to me in the City before taking on his father’s business, running clubs for people with money in abundance but sometimes insufficient in other more desirable… Continue reading Sir Oswald