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Getting it right, but also across …

In July, with four others. I am scheduled to take part in an (unguided) WW2 battlefield tour of Normandy. Actually in the interests of  accuracy I ought perhaps to qualify the term ‘unguided’: one of our number is an officially-accredited WW1 tour guide and all us are veterans of [...]

May 30, 2018 // 0 Comments

Sometimes it’s enough to drive you mad

As I begin today’s post I feel I need to declare the warning/caveat or interest that I’m not quite sure where it’s going to be going. Actually no – let me put that another way: I know roughly where I’m starting from but at this stage have no idea where I’m going to end up. I guess [...]

May 22, 2018 // 0 Comments

A non-downfall (and my part in it)

With the Harlequins now dispersed and probably lying on beaches around the world – and I learned overnight that the club have approached the RFU having apparently decided that Paul Gustard (one of Eddie Jones’ chosen coaches) is their preferred choice of new head coach – there were at [...]

May 20, 2018 // 0 Comments

On fading into the distance

Whenever I accept an invitation to be a guest speaker at rotary lunches, CBI dinners or charity functions – a healthy way of making a little extra loot to eke out a meagre pension that I’d recommend to any Rust reader – and I’m ever asked to describe the raison d’être behind this organ [...]

April 20, 2018 // 0 Comments

Riviera at War//George Kundahl

This is a most detailed account of World War 2 on the Riviera by American writer George Kundahl. Sometimes it is difficult to extricate themes from the mass of statistic. Nonetheless the account serves to enlighten the reader on a relatively undocumented region and theatre of war. The Riviera [...]

April 19, 2018 // 0 Comments

The French Character – a Paradox

Last night we met Muriel – the lady who was so helpful, when I was pickpocketed, for a drink. She is a social worker in some of the large sink housing estates around Nice such as Ariane. She is clearly a good soul like Regine. Yet it proved a somewhat convoluted arrangement. We agreed to meet [...]

April 14, 2018 // 0 Comments

There’s nowt so queer as folk (again)

It is a universal given that there are certain types – one might say stereotypes – of executives in all walks of life. We could all list our own selection and I trust I won’t bore the reader unduly by offering a version of mine as an opening gambit: *the unrestrainable and supremely [...]

March 30, 2018 // 0 Comments

A worthy man remembered – then and now

Sometimes life and historical research combine to throw up seemingly puzzling or even random media attention and/or ‘issues of the moment’. Take the current splash of publicity surrounding the remarkable tale of the splendid Walter Tull – the black or, to be specific, half-black [...]

March 26, 2018 // 0 Comments

A upgrade that has certainly worked

Yesterday to the Public Records Office at Kew in order to begin a new research campaign on subjects in both WW1 and WW2 respectively, this in advance of recce trips upon both to the continent and then informal group tours that I will be making later this year. I’d guess it has been about eighteen [...]

March 14, 2018 // 0 Comments

Munich

Before leaving for Munich yesterday for a four day trip I was indebted to my colleagues on the Rust for their input. Henry Elkins recommended  a short but highly informative history of Germany by Neil McGregor , Melanie Gay Munich by Robert Harris and I was interested to learn from Neil  Rosen [...]

March 13, 2018 // 0 Comments

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