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History

A WW1 landmark makes the news

Three and a half years ago now – travelling with a small group in the area of the Somme – my brother and I made a significant breakthrough on a little project we had given ourselves to try and discover the final resting places of two Allied airmen who had been downed upon a reconnaissance [...]

November 2, 2018 // 0 Comments

The Friday night meal

Yesterday my godson Jamie and his mother C and I were invited for a Sabbath meal by my niece. She comes from an orthod0x Jewish family and it was very much the traditional meal. C is a RI teacher and always eager to see at first hand religious practices. Amongst these Jewish orthodox practices are [...]

October 27, 2018 // 0 Comments

On our choice of political leaders

[Before launching today’s treatise, I’m going to issue a disclaimer. The fact is that a subject theme suddenly occurred to me and I’ve now come to the keyboard with no particular idea where it’s going to lead. In short, I’m embarking upon some improvised riffing and therefore I must [...]

October 27, 2018 // 0 Comments

The never-ending quest

It is a truism to state that our planet the Earth is a wondrous thing. Never mind all the life-threatening 21st Century issues – climate change, deforestation, ongoing destruction of natural habitats, the finite aspect of fossil fuel and other resources, population growth, geopolitical anarchy, [...]

October 26, 2018 // 0 Comments

The Sandham Chapel

Yesterday in the company of Alice Mansfield and Douglas Heath I visited the Stanley Spencer chapel in Burghclere, Newbury. For a number of reasons I was underwhelmed. First the chapel itself seems more a modern crematorium more than a spiritual place. Second, it had a rather confused gestation. The [...]

October 25, 2018 // 0 Comments

Thinking about it

These days scarcely a week goes by in which a potentially far-reaching new development in the world of science and technology doesn’t get featured. Irrespective of whether this happens in the fields of medical treatments or diagnosis, artificial intelligence (AI), genetically-modified crops that [...]

October 25, 2018 // 0 Comments

Marking the Centenary

The the centenary next month of the end of the conflict sometimes described by those alive at the time and/or both shortly afterwards as ‘the war to end all wars’ – and otherwise generally known as either ‘The Great War’ or ‘First World War’ – is [...]

October 20, 2018 // 0 Comments

The price of something – and then its value

Less than a month ago, at private lunch also attended by both the publisher and the editor of The Rust, I was pleased to learn from them that a recently-conducted survey had revealed our arts coverage had registered the highest ‘quality appreciation’ score of all amongst our readership. Here I [...]

October 15, 2018 // 0 Comments

Looking on the positive side …

Having deliberately refrained from addressing my favourite subject (you can file it under the general heading Cynicism Towards Everyone Who Has Ever Been Involved in Politics) in recent months, I return to it today following a dinner party I attended recently at which the future of the globe became [...]

October 9, 2018 // 0 Comments

More PC issues

The heightened PC-driven media frenzy over such issues as transgender rights, the various (some seemingly contradictory) strands of feminism and of course the widening ripples across the pond of male/female relationships prompted by the #MeToo movement – and indeed the backlash thereto – have [...]

September 26, 2018 // 0 Comments

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