Category Archives: The stuff of daily life

The Prix de  l’Arc de Triomphe will be run next Sunday. One Sunday in October, perhaps thirty years ago, I won money on that race. My gambling habit ran to £1 a week, my neighbour used to collect people’s football … Continue reading →

I like the word ‘vortex,’ it has about it much more a sense of excitement than is conveyed by its definition in the realm of physics. A friend attended Sussex University at the end of the 1970s. They were times … Continue reading →

Scrolling through the Freeview television guide, I tried to select a channel. The wrong button must have been pressed or the wrong box selected. Something told me I had set a reminder, it was not clear of what I was … Continue reading →

The parody of Vera Lynn’s lyric expressed the feeling of many of those whose meat ration during the Second World war included whale meat. My father, a child in London during the war years, remembered it as tough and tasteless. … Continue reading →

Maigret entered the interview room where the person being questioned sat with Janvier. Maigret looked at the frightened young man sat opposite Janvier. ‘Why don’t you talk to me and let Janvier go to terrorise someone else?’ Sometime later, Maigret … Continue reading →