Ducks in a row
There’s probably nothing that sums up mid-twentieth century middle class suburbia more than three ceramic ducks flying to nowhere on the wall of a terraced or semi-detached house. They were… Read more »
The Picnic
Some picnics are more memorable than others. I would probably put our alfresco lunch on a Sunday in June 2016 in the top ten. Our Californian friends Kurt and Bev… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Life in the Lockdown
Note: Because of reasons of space the editor of the Battersea Society’s quarterly magazine Battersea Matters and myself agreed that my usual page 2 contribution should this time appear here… 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 »
The wine is corked…
It was a ritual seemingly designed to intimidate the inexperienced diner which began with the scanning of an impossibly long wine list, desperately looking for something which wouldn’t involve taking… 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 »