Category Archives: Out and about

There was a moment of hurt. A local parody website carried a photograph including members of my family. It was labelled, “Autumn Fashion Collection, 1975,” and underneath someone had commented, “ooh, aargh.” My grandfather on whose farm it was taken … Continue reading →

Standing on the banks of the River Parrett one afternoon, there seemed something not quite right, something missing. In memory there had been a tributary running from the river, not the River Yeo, but something running toward the town. In … Continue reading →

I attended a school, long since closed, on the road between the Dartmoor villages of Manaton and Widecombe. It was a wild and beautiful spot. If you walked up the lane at the back of the school, climbed over the … Continue reading →

There seems an order among all things. Whether it’s the value of rare metals, or the cost of houses, or the price of cars, there is a ranking, a pecking order, a hierarchy. Sometimes the order does not relate to … Continue reading →

Cock o’ the North is a tune favoured by troupes of Morris dancers. The tune is not an English one, despite the enthusiasm with which it is played by Border Morris musicians, it was the regimental march of the Gordon Highlanders. … Continue reading →