Author Archives: Ian

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

Saying ‘no’ to veganism

Posted on 19th November 2022 by Ian

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

Posted on 17th November 2022 by Ian

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 →

Posted in Unreliable memories | Leave a comment

Doors of memory

Posted on 15th November 2022 by Ian

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 →

Posted in Unreliable memories | Leave a comment

Hell and being anti-social

Posted on 12th November 2022 by Ian

‘Hell is other people’ wrote Jean Paul Sartre in his 1944 play No Exit. Watching a television production of the play in my teenage years, it would have been hard to disagree with such a description of the plight of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Out and about | 3 Comments