A hint of Déjà vu
When I was a kid growing up in the sixties and seventies of the previous century, life was good. But there was an ever-present background noise, like the rattle in an air conditioner on a hot day. I’m talking about … Continued
Statues are part of history
Dearie me. Black Lives Matter (BLM) has now taken on the task of cleaning up history – in particular, statues. Let’s not get too precious about this. It’s been going on throughout human history. Christians destroyed so many ‘pagan’ monuments. … Continued
A break from politics and pandemics
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a bit sick of covid-19 restrictions and American politics. This week I thought I’d write about something completely different. Three hundred and ninety-one years ago this month there was a bump in … Continued
The cemetery – stories of the past
Last year Peter and I had gone on a conducted tour of Kingston’s convict ruins with a descendant of the Christian family. I’d strongly suggest that anybody going to Norfolk for the first time attends the tours. The guides are … Continued
One hundred years
One hundred years ago, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent along the Western Front. It was an armistice. The peace treaties were not signed until 1919 but the fighting had … Continued
A side trip to Dresden
It’s not very far from Berlin to Prague, so when we left Berlin on Sunday morning, we made a brief visit to Dresden, which was famously incendiary-bombed by the Allies in World War II. The city suffered under GDR rule, … Continued
The train to Berlin
We caught a train to take us from Warsaw to Berlin. We were in the first class carriages, but as Pete said, “If that’s first class I’d hate to be in economy”. I can’t say it was a train journey … Continued
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet…
… even if you find the same story written in many places. You’ll all have heard the quote from Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to … Continued
Batavia’s Graveyard is being excavated at last #history
It’s been a while since I wrote a Batavia post. It has also been a while since Beacon Island (Batavia’s Graveyard) has been vacated and the fishing shacks removed. With those impediments to a proper investigation out of the way, … Continued
Is it worth revamping an old book?
Have you ever gazed forlornly at your first ever publication and wondered whether you could have done a better job? I know some of you have. I guess that’s one of the wonderful things about the ease of electronic publishing … Continued