Category Archives: This sceptred isle

The students in the class talked about their experience of the police. “If you wear a track suit, sir, they will always stop you. If you are a middle class person, in a shirt and jeans, no-one will bother you, … Continue reading →

“When is a door not a door?” “When it’s ajar?” “What’s big and red and eats rocks?” “A big red rock eater.” “How do you make time fly?” “Throw the clock out of the window.” The silly riddles from childhood … Continue reading →

Our village is so rural that it has no street lights. Stand and look from the upstairs window of my mother’s house and for miles around the surrounding landscape is entirely agricultural, yet farming hardly features in the conversation. To … Continue reading →

Siegfried Sassoon was an extraordinary character. A soldier whose reckless regard for his own safety and his sacrificial concern for his men earned him the nickname “Mad Jack,” he was awarded the Military Cross for bringing back the wounded in … Continue reading →

The idea we have a choice is only an illusion. The multiplicity of channels trying to provide a twenty-four hour rolling news service, with each channel having increasingly finite resources, means that each channel will cover the same stories, that … Continue reading →