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The Romantic/William Boyd

You never what to expect in a William Boyd novel but – like Any Human Heart – this is a sweeping cradle-to-grave story of Cashel Ross set in the nineteenth century. Cashel was born in Cork. He was told his parents had died when their boat capsized and he was brought up by his Scottish [...]

November 3, 2022 // 0 Comments

a la Colthard/The Spread Eagle Midhurst

There was something reassuring about this traditional hotel in Midhurst, West Sussex, where my room had a proper key – not a card – the service was friendly but professional and there were floral china cups. Upon arriving last Sunday I ate smoked salmon and egg sandwiches with a glass [...]

November 2, 2022 // 0 Comments

Only one in three?!?!?

Apart possibly from corporate organisations’ automated phone call systems that never let the customer speak to a human being, the biggest scourge upon the average member of the British public’s “quiet enjoyment of life as it should be lived” must surely be the existence of [...]

November 2, 2022 // 0 Comments

White Lotus (second series).

There is always the clear risk that the second series of a successful programme will be greeted with more criticism than enthusiasm. To overcome this you need something that is fresh but adheres to the qualities that made the series one of the most popular broadcast on Sky Atlantic. The obvious [...]

November 1, 2022 // 0 Comments

Petworth Literary Festival/Simon Sebag Montefiore

Yesterday I attended the Petworth Literary Festival where Simon Sebag Montefiore was interviewed by Davide Soskin about his new book The World.    This is a history of the world through families. His thesis is that the treatment of history is too narrow – whether of a country or a [...]

October 31, 2022 // 0 Comments

In Our Time/Wilfred Owen

One of my favourite wireless programmes is In Our Time presented by Melvyn Bragg at 9-00 on Radio 4 every Thursday. The topic varies weekly and Bragg assembles a team of academics well-qualified to discuss it. Yesterday’s programme featured the World War poet Wilfred Owen. My connection with [...]

October 30, 2022 // 0 Comments

On the buses

Brighton is celebrated for the theatre of its street life. By the pier there is a replica of Darth Vader and other street actors and other characters happy to pose for some silver in their hat. However there is also theatrical life in a different way… on the buses. A few years ago I was impressed [...]

October 29, 2022 // 0 Comments

Getting it right beats how we’d like it to be

As a columnist on the Rust I am sometimes reminded of a conversation that I had eons ago with an elderly relative on the rather broad subject of which pastimes or subjects individuals take up as hobbies, interests and/or life-long obsessions and the reasons why they do. In these days of increased [...]

October 29, 2022 // 0 Comments

more techie woes

A common gripe amongst us elderly Rusters is to be forced into the smart phone/iPad world only to find it’s not working and there is no one to call. I have spent most of this month under the incorrect assumption that I must pay the balance of an invoice by the end of it. I happened to speak to [...]

October 27, 2022 // 0 Comments

Sacked!

We are now well into the football sacking season with Thomas Tuchel, Bruno Lage and Stevie Gerrard early casualties. Leeds’ Jesse Marsch’s head is in the noose. In an article in yesterday’s Times their chief football writer Henry Winter identified the increasing role fans play in such [...]

October 26, 2022 // 1 Comment

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