Articles by Robert Tickler

About Robert Tickler

A man of financial substance, Robert has a wide range of interests and opinions to match. More Posts

Modern banking

Over the so-called festive period I was called by an old friend in some anxiety. He had arranged the disposal of some shares on December 19th as he had substantial outgoings in the New Year. As at December 30th the funds had still not arrived He called his bank for a temporary overdraft to be [...]

January 1, 2025 // 0 Comments

Fall/John Preston

This is the story of Robert Maxwell and what a life story it is. Born as Jan Ludvik Hoch in 1923 into an impoverished Czechoslovakian Jewish family who were largely exterminated in the Holocaust, he joined up with the British army liberating Europe, reinvented himself as Captain Robert Maxwell and [...]

December 19, 2024 // 0 Comments

London 2014/2124

Ten years ago I made my momentous decision to leave London for the South Coast. I was born in London and regarded myself as a Londoner. My closest friend- alas now passed – opined that I would be back in 2 years if I could afford the housing prices. I can see the attraction and attractions of [...]

November 12, 2024 // 0 Comments

Fiddler on the Roof/Open Air Theatre (Regent’s Park)

Fiddler on the Roof is a wonderful musical of catchy songs, humour and two engaging themes of displacement and tradition confronting change. This performance does it justice. American actor Adam Dannheiszer is well cast as the philosophical Tevye the milkman clinging to his traditional [...]

September 20, 2024 // 0 Comments

Praise given where due

A common theme in the Rust and elsewhere is the difficulty and frustrations for the elderly in coping with the demands of the digital age. Thus, when I noted that my passport would expire at the end of 2024, I was naturally anxious that (1) it might take ages to be processed; and (2) I might [...]

August 5, 2024 // 0 Comments

A passenger on a train

Yesterday I was travelling back by train to my home town from Victoria. An attractive woman placing her case on a rack sat temporarily next to me and then moved. Initially I was hopeful of her company but grateful subsequently she sat elsewhere. She got on her mobile phone to reveal the latest [...]

July 18, 2024 // 0 Comments

London/2024

Ten years ago I made the momentous decision to leave London for the south coast. A good friend at the time advised me that if it did not work out – as clearly he thought it would happen then – I would be back within 2 years and have to deal with increased property prices. In fact, [...]

June 21, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Sunday Times Rich List

I always read The Sunday Times Rich List, which arrived with the paper last weekend, but with increasing cynicism. Firstly, how do they evaluate wealth and, secondly, debt? The Irish entrepreneur Tony O’Reilly passed recently. He was the businessman that built up the Kerrygold butter brand, had a [...]

May 23, 2024 // 0 Comments

Titanic lives/Richard Davenport-Hines

The Titanic sank 112 years and 1 month ago but it’s still an iconic event and I have often wondered why. It must be the sheer tragedy of the greatest liner of its age sinking on its maiden voyage and/or the film which launched the career of Kate Winslet and/or the horror of rich and poor [...]

May 11, 2024 // 0 Comments

Bye bye Volvo, Hallo 7 Bus …

Some five years ago I made the momentous decision to give up driving. The precise moment came when I happened to take the lower Roedean road between Rottingdean and Brighton. I saw a group of kids by the roadside. Fortunately I am not a fast driver as one of the group dashed across the road in [...]

April 12, 2024 // 0 Comments

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El Cid/The book and the film

January 12, 2025 // 0 Comments

I was recently given a new biography of El Cid, the Spanish 11th Century knight, by Nora Berend, a Cambridge University historian. Her thesis is that Rodrigo de Viva – [...]
The Tanner Report: Fulham 4 Watford 1

January 10, 2025 // 0 Comments

Reporting on this victory is secondary to commenting on the decline of the FA Cup in my lifetime. The year of my birth (1954) witnessed what many consider the greatest game [...]
Foreign detective writing

January 9, 2025 // 0 Comments

We tend to assume that only English-speaking writers can write detective novels. In Britain the genre is dominated by women – Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Marjoriec [...]
Surprising actors in a 1980 TV series

January 8, 2025 // 0 Comments

On Monday I watched Bergerac, now shown at 3.00pm on the UK Drama channel. It featured – as Belle Young, an eccentric boatowner and smuggler – the 1970s actress [...]
The Tanner Report: Fulham 2 Ipswich 2

January 6, 2025 // 0 Comments

Against Wolves, Southampton – and now Ipswich – Fulham have earned just 2 points, but 5 against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. We do better against the big boys. [...]