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 »
Category: Nostalgia
Children’s Favourite?
I doubt that many of the Dan Brown fans who visit the Temple Church ever notice the wooden plaque recording the fact that it was here in 1927 that one… 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 »