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Drunks

A few weeks ago on the car radio I happened to hear A Good Read, a book recommendation programmme presented by Harriet Gilbert. Under the Milkwood by Dylan Thomas was advocated by one participant. There was much praise for the Welsh poet’s lyricism. Harriet Gilbert, as accompaniment, used an [...]

July 24, 2021 // 0 Comments

Hemingway & Ken Burns

A colleague of mine on the Rust sent me a revealing interview with Ken Burns on documentary making. See here – THE GUARDIAN He revealed that he can take 10 years to make a documentary and – though the funding is a problem as he operates in the public broadcasting sector – he would [...]

July 21, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Open

I was last at St George’s in 1993 when Greg Norman roasted the field. I followed him early and stayed with him to the 18th. Since then Ben Curtis and Darren Clarke have won the claret jug here. Like all links courses, it’s weather dependent: wind in your face – a wood, wind with you [...]

July 15, 2021 // 0 Comments

Par for the course, I’m afraid

Today, courtesy of the pages of The Rust, I present to the world my uncompromising and woke-free sixpenny-worth on the troubling subject of the background, the circumstances and, of course, the crowd control and innumerable other events and incidents surrounding the staging of 2020/2021 Euros Final [...]

July 13, 2021 // 0 Comments

Stonehenge – potential new ‘discovery’

Trawling the newspaper websites overnight I came across this piece by David Leafe on the website of the Daily Mail and thought it worthy of possible interest to Rusters. It is all about the latest theory as to both the design and purpose of Stonehenge – see here – DAILY [...]

July 3, 2021 // 0 Comments

Napoleon’s Plunder and the Theft of Veronese’s Feast/Cynthia Salzman

This is an account by Cynthia Salzman of the appropriation of Paolo Veronese’s Wedding Feat of Cana in 1796 by Napoleon. The painting hung on the refectory wall of the Santa Maggiore church in Venice commissioned by the Benedictine Order. Napoleon , just 26, had conquered most of the Italian [...]

July 2, 2021 // 0 Comments

Hypocrisy in politicians and public figures

As I contemplate any cause célèbre scandal, such as that which engulfed Government Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday after The Sun published him snogging one of his close advisers Gina Colodangelo in the office, one of the first things that always comes to my mind is the phrase “Let he [...]

June 26, 2021 // 0 Comments

Quartered but safe/George MacDonald Fraser

Pursuing my interest in the less well known theatres of conflict of World War Two, I received this enthusiastic recommendation from a solicitor friend of mine. It’s a personal account by the author of the Flashman series of the Burma Campaign of 1946 and is extremely good. It dispelled many [...]

June 23, 2021 // 0 Comments

Fake or Fortune BBC4 – (Mondays 8 pm)

For all its irritations I was pleased to watch another series of Fake or Fortune.   Philip Mould, the cool art dealer, has been upgraded to joint presenter alongside Fiona Bruce and the courteous Dr Bendor Grosvenor is back as art expert and historian. This week they considered the authenticity [...]

June 16, 2021 // 0 Comments

Get your hand-cart ready, we’re all going to Hell

I make no apology for the fact that my post today runs the risk of being pigeonholed as the pathetically-sad ramblings of a sterotypical old, out of touch, git who epitomises everything that 21st Century, “woke” ‘Generation X’, Millennial youngsters around the globe waste their time blaming [...]

June 7, 2021 // 0 Comments

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