Broadsides – A collection of bits and pieces
"Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a blog”
It took a few years for the culture and fashions of dear old England to reach its far flung colonies, ex colonies and protectorates. Less true in the mid 60’s than before the war, of course, but still true to a quite remarkable degree, even quite late into the ‘60’s. So it was in Singapore.... Continue Reading →
The remains of the great Polish General Wladyslaw Sikorski used to lie in the soft Trent-side earth of Newark in Nottinghamshire. He was laid there after dying in a plane crash in July of 1943. He was, at the time of the crash, Prime Minister in exile of Poland and Commander in Chief of their... Continue Reading →
It becomes fairly clear from a reading of this carefully researched account of the “mutiny” that had the British Cabinet ever succeeded in crushing the veto power of the House of Lords and passing into the law a Bill, for full Home Rule in Ireland, North and South, then they would not have been able... Continue Reading →
Milton Jones? Surely an unlikely name. Welsh I think. Jones the poet perhaps. If he writes poetry then you would have to buy it, for what he does with words, the associations between words, and the pauses between words, already makes him the laureate of comedy. You would just have to read his poems. His... Continue Reading →
From a playwright of such towering intellectual reputation Roughs is one of Becket’s most difficult texts. (Published as Rough for Theatre I and Rough for Theatre II ) To run them at the Fringe takes courage and a lot of balls. Not many will understand the message, if there is one, or see the point,... Continue Reading →
Mrs. Thatcher was of course brought up in Grantham. Her father, Alderman Alfred Roberts owned a grocers on the corner of North Parade and Broad Street, and the family lived above the shop. Years later, sometime after she was appointed prime minister, the North Parade corner shop was sold. It was bought by Rodney Cloke,... Continue Reading →
Further ephemeral treasures from my archive shoebox. Thisi is a check list of the NUPE officers strike levy collected for the Nottinghamshire Miners during the 1984 strike. The levy, £23.00 a week, was mandatory and was in addition to countless irregular payments, contributions and collections that were a constant feature of the period. No doubt... Continue Reading →
Rheindalen, a great sprawling British military garrison. Headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine and home to thousands of soldiers, their wives and children. And within fairly short distances from the garrison, massive Royal Air Force bases humming with technology, bristling with weapons and with armed fighter and bomber jets on permanent standby to... Continue Reading →
There must be in excess of a thousand images painted of the Forth rail bridge. And why not, for there are few more inspiring and powerful examples of Victorian engineering achievement. A great dominating structure, leaping across the estuary in massive strides of girder and steel. It touches the dullest of hearts and has naturally... Continue Reading →
To the memory of the 31 soldiers of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment who were killed in this and other areas of Dublin during the Easter Rising 1916 -Lest we Forget- (your can read their story here and here) L/Cpl Barks (Newark); Private Barnett (Loughbourgh); Private Blissett (Nottingham); Private Bradford (Alfreton); 2nd Lieut. Browne (Nottingham); L/Cpl... Continue Reading →
Ferkling through my personal archive (two shoe boxes at the bottom of the cupboard) I came across this reminder of a historically interesting Oxford strike, for union recognition, at the Oxford bookshop and publishing premises of Blackwells. The be-suited man talking to the two earnest pickets, who are listening with rapt attention to his words of wisdom,... Continue Reading →
To ushers quay, to the House of the Dead, wherein Joyce set the most famous of his short stories, “The Dead”. The house is a tall elegant Georgian building with long and equally elegant windows overlooking the river Liffey and the new James Joyce Bridge designed by the Spaniard Santiago Calatrava and of which Joyce... Continue Reading →
I watched “The best Exotic Marigold Hotel” on TV and was touched by the relationship between Maggie Smith who played the wheelchair bound Muriel Donnelly and the untouchable Indian servant woman who swept her room and served her meals. It was more than hotel service. It was whites with native servants; it was a touch... Continue Reading →
I watched “The best Exotic Marigold Hotel” on TV and was touched by the relationship between Maggie Smith who played the wheelchair bound Muriel Donnelly and the untouchable Indian servant woman who swept her room and served her meals. It was more than hotel service. It was whites with native servants; it was a touch... Continue Reading →
I bPáirceanna Flóndrais Séideann na poipini leo Idir na crosa ró ar ró Is áit dúinn: thas ar eitleog ghroi Canann fuisega fós le bri Nach gCluintear i measc gunnai's gleo In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place and in the sky The larks, still bravely... Continue Reading →
Is this index card taken from a British Intelligence file during the war of Independence? Is it the real thing? We have an ordinary index card, 6 inches by 4 inches, brown and fragile with age, a rough photograph, cropped from something larger, a description, not very accurate, and the typed legend of remarks, intended... Continue Reading →
Dinner at the Geisha Restaurant with the Chinese Ambassador to Ireland. An eighteen course menu prepared by a team of chefs specially flown in from the city of Hangzhou in the Zhejiang province of China. But wait. The Geisha restaurant? Is that not Japanese? On enquiry it turns out to be a fusion restaurant specialising... Continue Reading →
Nottingham has been sending fighting troops to Ireland for over 800 years. There is a reference in the 1363 Rolls of Edward III calling upon the Sheriff of Nottingham to " select 40 of the best and bravest of Archers in Notts and Derby, to assemble at Liverpool, furnished with bow, arrows and other arms,... Continue Reading →
I bought this book out of curiosity about the role of the British consular service in the emerging colonial development of Africa. I had just finished reading Mario Vargas Llosa’s fictionalised account of another British consular official, namely Sir Roger Casement who was consul to Congo Free State port of Boma in the African Congo... Continue Reading →
There are probably more charity shops in Edinburgh than in any other city in the British Isles. I don’t know why. There just is. On some streets there are more charity shops than ordinary shops. I long ago reached the view that at least one out of every three people you meet in Edinburgh must... Continue Reading →
Broadsides - A collection of bits and pieces 