The Carpetbaggers

The Carpetbaggers, you may remember, is a best seller by Harold Robbins published in 1961, principally famous for its salacious sex content. This post won’t have any of that.

Published
Categorised as Politics

Sudak Remembered

Henry Sanford said that although he’d never been to Sudak, he visited Koktibel which is nearby in 2005. His great, great grandfather was the Russian seascape painter, Ivan Aivazovsky, who lived in Theodossia (now Feodosia). Russian readers will be familiar with Aivazovsky (1817-1900). He was more highly regarded internationally in his own lifetime than his British… Continue reading Sudak Remembered

Take a Seat

The diocese alluded to in a recent post, How Big is Your Diocese, is Sudak in the Crimea. I’d hitherto never heard of the place and never expected to hear of it again, until a few days ago.

Château Bute

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is Paul Torday’s first novel and his best. It is significantly better than the 2011 film of the same name. The story is as old as the world: hope trumping reality and money over-ruling common sense. Wine production in Wales shares the same themes.

Denning Report

At this time of year I think of Lord Denning, the eminent lawyer and judge.

Published
Categorised as Politics

An Admiral of the Blue

Bradford on Avon to Bath, along the K&A canal, is not far – maybe ten miles. Almost immediately on the outskirts of Bradford is a 14th century tithe barn, so over-restored that it looks like a (successful) stockbroker’s second home. I have read that the interior is worth seeing but it was not open early… Continue reading An Admiral of the Blue

Burton in Bradford on Avon

The overuse of superlatives is jolly annoying. So after praising the Norman church at Devizes to the skies I’m embarrassed to tell you that Bradford on Avon has a better one.

Roger le Poer, Pumping and Pele

Roger le Poer, better known maybe as Roger of Salisbury, is a Norman who rose from being a priest in a small chapel near Caen to being Bishop of Salisbury, Lord Chancellor and Lord Keeper of England in the reign of Henry I. This is (maybe) his effigy in Salisbury Cathedral.

A Transatlantic Journey

Gap year commissions in the army have changed over the past forty years. Now you have an eight week course at Sandhurst, serve for almost a year and get paid £18,000 a year. When I did one in 1973 it was a bit different.

Published
Categorised as Travel