Monthly Archives: November 2022

A beautiful solution to crime

There was an instinctive sense of beauty in childhood years. The countryside in mid-Somerset is not classic picture postcard stuff, but there are sights and landscapes that have a special quality.  Every village and every town has at least a … Continue reading

Posted in This sceptred isle | 1 Comment

Black Friday is about separating you from your money

The group of three students laughed and began to sing The Fairytale of New York. If there were ever an anti-consumerist Christmas anthem, it must be it: two drunks without a cent to spend sharing their dreams on a cold … Continue reading

Posted in The stuff of daily life | Leave a comment

Saying ‘no’ to veganism

I must declare an interest. My mother’s family have been farmers for generations, raising stock, milking cows, growing crops, in a small area of Somerset, definitely since the Eighteenth Century, and probably for centuries prior to their recorded activities on … Continue reading

Posted in Out and about | 2 Comments

Learning lines

Fifty years ago this term, Miss Stanley was the English teacher for Form 1 Br at Elmhurst Grammar School. Miss Stanley loved literature and reading and words. Being among the dullest in the form, it was only in later years … Continue reading

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Doors of memory

There was an announcement to Sixth Year students on the school tannoy (does anyone still call it a tannoy?) The students were to go down to the football pitch for a group photograph on the grass bank. Walking down with … Continue reading

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