This is Illyria lady…
[Enter VIOLA, a Captain, and Sailors] Viola. What country, friends, is this?Captain. This is Illyria, lady. Tweflth Nigt Act I Scene II Well it wasn’t really Illyria but the stage… Read more »
Category: Nostalgia
I bid you goodbye
A student hurrying through Oxford on his way to a lecture saw his professor pumping energetically away on the front tyre of his battered old bike. He asked if he… Read more »
The Corona Man Cometh
Strange that the first time I came across the word corona was as the name for a bottle of fizzy pop. The van used to turn up once a week… Read more »
Who’s a pity boy then…?
A Budgerigar in a Cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage William Blake was actually talking about a ‘Robin Redbreast’ (you knew that of course) but the principle’s the same. The… Read more »
Moss Side Story
It was a terraced house in Marcia Street, on the edge of Moss Side in Manchester, just behind Whitworth Park. And it was the late 1960s. The house and the… Read more »
Turkey in a Pram
When in A Christmas Carol Ebenezer Scrooge wakes up after the three spirits have taken him on his nightmare journey through his past and future life, he is a changed… Read more »
Hail to the Sprout
The secular images on Christmas cards haven’t changed an awful lot over the years: Father Christmas (or Santa as he increasingly gets called) still makes plenty of appearances, along with… Read more »
Frying tonight…
Sometimes i feel like a priest in a fish & chip queue quietly thinking as the vinegar runs through how nice it would be to buy a supper for two. Vinegar by Roger McGough As English… Read more »
Eyeballs in the sky
My mum and dad didn’t talk about politics much – I was introduced to socialism by my maternal grandad – a retired railwayman, and a socialist to his fingertips. He… Read more »
What’s in a name?
I answered quite happily to the name Michael until I was about thirteen when I decided I’d prefer to be known as Mike. If nothing else it was quicker to write and easier to spell. My… Read more »