Category Archives: This sceptred isle

Perhaps it was the economic stringencies of the times, but books did not seem to play a significant part of the learning process in primary school days. There were the Word Perfect books for spelling and the books that formed the … Continue reading →

The English Channel is not the Atlantic. It does not have the huge swell, with peaks so high and troughs so deep that you lose sight of boats making their gradual progress through heavy seas. It does not have huge … Continue reading →

The August bank holiday, the last shout of summer. The M5 motorway is filled with traffic, people searching for a bit of happiness, a bit of fun. A prayer said to have come from the wall of an inn in … Continue reading →

In the days before the Internet, the days of the very distant past before the establishment of local radio stations, to hear any reference to local places was rare. Of course, the local newspaper carried snippets from around the villages, … Continue reading →

If I had to choose my favourite line in an English novel, it would be the final sentence of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, where one of the characters declares, “This is England, you can do whatever you like.” It seemed an … Continue reading →