Double Death on the Avon

I noticed this plaque while I was walking in Wiltshire last week.  It’s quite new and a local woman walking her dog told me replaces an older memorial.

A Round on the Links

FTWeekend is a must-read for me. It is delivered in hard copy to my door and if I’m away I can usually find a copy. The overseas editions have most of the same content as the UK edition. One regular item that you will miss if you are an overseas reader is A Round on… Continue reading A Round on the Links

Fear and Greed and Grouse

Today (Friday) grouse shooting starts and the FTSE 100 index has risen above 6900. It is up 14% this year. It’s nice to feel a bit less poor but is this a bubble that will burst when Brexit bites?

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Alec and Dicky

An astonishing story was told over dinner a couple of evenings ago and you may find it interesting. Cast your mind back to Richard Nixon’s Presidency.

Great Stones, Part Three

Yesterday we walked along the Avon to Old Sarum and then down into Salisbury. The villages are pretty – lots of thatched cottages and spruced up houses with Range Rovers in the drive. A reader in Beverly Hills sent me an extract from Pagan Britain by Ronald Hutton. (Yes, I expect you to be impressed that… Continue reading Great Stones, Part Three

Great Stones, Part Two

  This is Silbury Hill, not far from Avebury, that we passed on Monday after lunch.

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Great Stones

After lounging around in France for a few days I’m working off the pastis and wine by walking from Swindon to Salisbury. It’s about thirty-six miles so splits nicely into a three day hike.

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Barry Lyndon

Cast your mind back a few years – to 1844, when Thackeray’s The Luck of Barry Lyndon came out. I may have started it years ago but I’m pretty sure that I got bogged down and didn’t finish reading it. Stanley Kubrick read it all and his 1975 film eclipses the book to such an… Continue reading Barry Lyndon

French Resistance

Yesterday there was mention of activities by the French Resistance in Tarn in WW II. This morning let’s flesh this out. This picture works up a bit of atmosphere depicting the Resistance scooping up parachutes dropped by the RAF. Rather improbably it seems to be a full moon which was a no-no for discrete drops. 

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Categorised as History