Author Archives: Ian

ABE

Posted on 10th December 2022 by Ian

There were celebrations in bars around Dublin this evening as Harry Kane’s penalty kick flew high over the French goal. The cheers at the final whistle were loud. This evening’s World Cup quarter=final result recalled and apocryphal story I heard … Continue reading →

Posted in This sceptred isle | Leave a comment

Australia

Posted on 7th December 2022 by Ian

A friend is going home to Australia for Christmas. To someone for whom Australia is a land in the imagination, it seems something from a childhood dream. Ideas of Australia had come from a jigsaw puzzle. Perhaps it had come … Continue reading →

Posted in Unreliable memories | Leave a comment

England’s premier railway line!

Posted on 1st December 2022 by Ian

In childhood years, we thought the railway line that passed by my grandfather’s farm at Pibsbury was the most important line in the country. As a teenager,  I remember someone from elsewhere challenging my description of the railway as “the … Continue reading →

Posted in Out and about | 6 Comments

A beautiful solution to crime

Posted on 28th November 2022 by Ian

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

Posted on 24th November 2022 by Ian

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