‘a reckoning with the truth of mortality.’ Unknown So a significant birthday comes around later this month and a new decade begins. While I discover that I have to wait another six years to obtain a much coveted bus pass, I will soon be able to procure a ‘senior’ railcard. Consolation or inevitability? At this … More Spectacular 60
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“The British nation is unique in this respect: they are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.” – Winston Churchill (speech 10th June 1941) So, while everyone was frantically casting their vote in South Africa, we left them to it and boarded a … More Ready for Lift Off
‘I felt overstuffed and dull and disappointed, the way I always do the day after Christmas, as if whatever it was the pine boughs and the candles and the silver and gilt-ribboned presents and the birch-log fires and the Christmas turkey and the carols at the piano promised never came to pass.’ Sylvia Plath – … More Post-Christmas 2023
‘May you never be too grown up to search the skies on Christmas Eve.’ Anon I once had a group of eight-year-olds ask me if we had elephants in our garden in South Africa. It’s amazing which images persist and what impressions stick. I could have told them that Cape Town is actually a very … More Christmas Contrasts
‘…blue skies and silver birch trees will always be a reminder of exam time.’ … More Almost summer
On both sides of the equator, we’re going to need… a spiritual window that has neither shutters, blinds nor curtains; is not made from frosted glass or is distorted to give us a false view of what lies beyond it. … More The window of joy
I am a great believer in the power and richness of shared memories… … More Memory Lane
‘There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.’ CS Lewis … More Review/Preview 2022/23
‘We celebrated Christmas last Saturday. Yes, the full, bulging, indulgent, glittered stocking of festivities…’ … More Missing the Christmas Rush
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