The Wall That Donald Built

This is where I put my friend Edward (Ned) York after his mis-reading of the likely outcome of the American Presidential election. Anyway, I have relented and let him out this morning with another rather interesting guest-blog.

Remembrance Sunday

This is the interior of Les Invalides chapel in Paris. Funny to call it a chapel when it is such a monumental edifice. Louis XIV started building Les Invalides in 1670 as a retirement home and hospital for his old soldiers.

Hooray for Mateus Rosé

An army friend told me that he had arranged a reunion dinner for his intake at Sandhurst. To make it more interesting he got copies of their Sandhurst reports and put them at their places. They all opened them, most laughed and shared the contents with their neighbours but some hastily put them away. These… Continue reading Hooray for Mateus Rosé

Lord Mayor’s Show

It rained yesterday morning in London. Derek, who came to clean the windows, got drenched. Last time he came we worried about Brexit and this time about Trump.

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Categorised as History

Remembrance Day

I don’t have a Remembrance Day routine. Last year I went to the SOE memorial to Violette Szabo on the Thames (Alms for Oblivion). This year I went to Hammersmith post office to collect a parcel.

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Categorised as History

A Drop of Irish

Marigold Armitage is perched on the top shelf of my fiction section between Martin Amis and Daisy Ashford. If you don’t know her books you will certainly be aware of her genre.

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Categorised as Literature

Daytime TV

You don’t watch daytime TV do you? That would be Pointless and show you up as an Egghead. Allow me to digress …

Air Accidents

Last week Charles Woodruff mentioned Reginald Warneford’s grave in Brompton Cemetery. This week on a crisp, sunny morning I set off in search of it.

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Categorised as History

The Importance of …

The US election today is more than a two horse race. Guest blogger Edward (Ned) York explains what is at stake and what the implications are.

A Soldiers’ Song

The first time I came to Wexford was in 2005, the last season in the Theatre Royal before the new opera house was built. The Theatre Royal had been a cinema. It had a narrow auditorium with a balcony reached by a narrow staircase.

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Categorised as Music