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What’s it all about?

My subject for today – illustrated by two examples – is the vexed one of how the human race copes with life on a planet with finite resources on the one hand and apparently infinite complications upon the other. I grant you that’s a hell of an opening statement but there’s no particular [...]

April 17, 2021 // 0 Comments

That all-important second jab

It so happened that yesterday I joined a very British queue. I’d been rung on Tuesday afternoon by someone from my local GP surgery about my second vaccination jab. I’m sure that every GP surgery, pharmacy, NHS “walk in centre” and other unit involved in rolling out the UK’s vaccination [...]

April 16, 2021 // 0 Comments

Queen Elizabeth and the Spy in the Household/Channel 4

This was a typical Channel 4 documentary- long on revelation, short on evidence for it. The programme made two significant such revelations, namely that the Queen was complicit in the cover up of Anthony Blunt and his immunity from prosecution and, secondly, the spy delivered a hot dossier on the [...]

April 6, 2021 // 0 Comments

Normandy 2021

It is said that “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” – and it was certainly true when, as a young teacher on my first assignment, devoid of geography knowledge, I was given a textbook by my headmaster and told that – as long as I stayed one chapter ahead of the pack – [...]

April 4, 2021 // 0 Comments

V2/Robert Harris

Popular historical fiction writer Robert Harris spent the lockdown researching this novel about the V2 rocket. There are two strands to the narrative. The novel begins with a V2 rocket hitting Warwick Court in London where Kay, a reconnaissance analyst for the RAF, is having an affaire with one of [...]

March 30, 2021 // 0 Comments

What’s going on … and some laudable efficiency

Having – as announced on this august organ – begun my new fitness campaign on Monday, yesterday I did my third seven-mile walk in four days and this return to regular exercise, combined with a slight change to my dietary regime, has already appeared to help me lose four pounds in [...]

March 26, 2021 // 0 Comments

My Rembrandt

This is a Dutch documentary available on Amazon Prime which I watched last night. It’s about the ownership or acquisition of a Rembrandt. Rembrandt never went out of fashion unlike his peer Johannes Vermeer who had to wait 200 years for fame. Similarly Gustav Klimt and Sandro Botticelli would [...]

March 24, 2021 // 0 Comments

Defence is a no-win matter

Today is the anniversary of the imposition of the UK’s first lockdown – a milestone that I’m sure most of us will not be celebrating. During my overnight trawl of the newspaper websites I noticed a piece in The Independent detailing that apparently the nation’s total of 126,000 Covid-19 [...]

March 23, 2021 // 0 Comments

Robert Maxwell

I neither knew nor had any dealings with Bob Maxwell but I knew well two he did. A recent biography by John Preston called The Fall has received good reviews but I do not really want to spend the time reading it. However the BBC serialised it over 5 episodes and it was read by actor Henry Goodman. [...]

February 24, 2021 // 1 Comment

Sport as it was may be back on the horizon

Amidst the details of the Prime Minister’s cautious, once and for all, “road map” out of Lockdown 3 announced yesterday, UK sports fans, clubs and players/athletes will have taken particular interest in the 17th May and 21st June milestones within it applying to the potential return of crowds [...]

February 23, 2021 // 0 Comments

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