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To 1944 and back

This may sound a degree absurd from someone in their sixties with a general interest in military history but last week I made my first-ever research trip to Normandy as a member of a small touring group spending five days ‘doing’ the D-Day Landings and elements of the 1944 Allied campaign to [...]

July 8, 2018 // 0 Comments

France :A History from Gaul to de Gaulle / John Julius Norwich

I always have a lot of respect for writers of non fiction whose preparation involves a lot of research and who can nonetheless produce a final work that is concise. Norman Stone wrote a brilliant short history of the First World War, Neal McGregor a superb but short history of Germany and now John [...]

July 3, 2018 // 0 Comments

What it’s all about (again)

The other night I met up with a busy professional now in his mid-fifties, who has worked with my family for many years, to discuss ‘stuff’. The subject of mortality came up and it led to a fascinating passage of conversation. You know the sort of thing. We began with the randomness of life [...]

June 30, 2018 // 0 Comments

After the Party/Cressida Connolly

I can probably as I am one say this without being ravaged in social media but After the Party is very much a woman’s novel. It features at its heart the relationship between 3 sisters and covers subjects such as food, rearing children and middle class county socialising, all more likely to engage [...]

June 24, 2018 // 0 Comments

A recce in France

Over the past three decades, as an amateur enthusiast without significant expert in the subject, I have done a good deal of military history research in all the usual places – not least in Belgium/France, Italy and Gallipoli (WW1) and in France, Belgium and Portugal (the Duke of Wellington at [...]

June 16, 2018 // 0 Comments

Those were the days

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing – if you can think back that far – and, as my kids keep reminding me, as my short-term memory fades by the day I shall probably soon be able to recall the Sixties and Seventies better than what happened last week despite the old counter-culture, rock [...]

June 12, 2018 // 0 Comments

An infinite variety?

Sometimes lists and historical industry overviews allow a combination of reflection and education. In the world of cinema I often find rewards from reading analyses of genres – horror, biography, sci-fi, comedy etc. – and/or the entire bodies of work of individual actors or directors, [...]

June 11, 2018 // 0 Comments

Bob Dylan’s time out

I’m not a one-eyed Dylan worshipper but acknowledge him as one of the all-time greats of rock music. To put it in context, my favourite Dylan album is his thirtieth – Time Out Of Mind (1997) – probably because I related to its themes of world-weariness at the time – and for large [...]

June 9, 2018 // 0 Comments

Around and around

I have just returned from a stay with a pal of forty years and more, a far more well-read and sociable cove than me. It was a fascinating experience as I knew it would be. I’ve rarely read much purely for pleasure, which he does on practically a daily basis and I admire him for it. Instead I have [...]

June 2, 2018 // 0 Comments

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