From Wodehouse to Wittgenstein

Anthony Quinton presented Round Britain Quiz but the rest of the time was a philosopher based in Oxford: fellow of All Souls, fellow of New College and president of Trinity College.

The Go-Between

What’s up, after reading this remarkable post i am too cheerful to share my experience here with mates This is the sort of spam that arrives. It is atypical only in that usually it’s a desire to share my stuff with their mates, if they have any, and the World Wide Web. A reader has… Continue reading The Go-Between

Piano Concerto

The opening chords of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 are instantly recognisable; you can listen to the whole piece at the end of this post. The reaction it evoked when it was first played may come as a surprise to you.

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Categorised as Music

Two Principled Politicians

Have you heard of Adlai Stevenson? I’m embarrassed  that I hadn’t until I watched him being interviewed by John Freeman in a BBC TV series called Face to Face, broadcast in 1959.

Big Bang Theory

I enjoyed sounding the gong to announce meals at Barmeath in my childhood. Under my grandmother’s instruction my technique improved from loud bashing (think Top Cat summoning the gang) to a subtler, gradually increasing crescendo, beating around the edge of the gong, culminating in a final stroke, fortissimo, to the centre.

Croissants for Breakfast

Croissant in French means crescent (and as a noun can be used to describe a new moon) but not all croissants are crescent-shaped.

A Marshal of France

The Gers countryside rolls attractively, when seen from a car. On foot the hills seem steeper and it took two hours to walk to Lectoure.

La Vie Rurale

  Gers is a department in the south west of France. It is musketeer country, created from part of the provinces of Gascony and Guyenne around the time of the French Revolution in 1790. The fourth musketeer, d’Artagnan was Gersois.