Last night I watched the first episode of a television "docu-drama", "Anne," which covers the quarter-century struggle of Anne Williams, mother of the 15 year old Kevin, one of the the 97 football enthusiasts who died as a result of the mismanagement of the crowd in the Hillsborough Stadium in 1989. This episode covered the initial response of those responsible (it was al the fault of drunken hooligans in the crowd) and the sinister pressure on Mrs Williams by "officials" to drop her search for the truth about what had happened to her son. There are another three episodes. As ...
Getting out into the garden and tending the plants or doing maintenance chores brings me almost unbelievable levels of joy and happiness. Continue reading →
The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill is a locked room murder mystery that is usually taken to be the first full length novel of that type.
This is the eighth of the Black Archive brief monographs on Doctor Who, on a two-part 1982 Fifth Doctor story which I well remember watching at the time (it was the month before my fifteenth birthday). When I returned to it in 2008, I wrote:I did catch Black Orchid first time round in 1992, and it was and is a rather charming story, the Doctor and friends relaxing in a 1920s country household and uncovering the family secret. Davison, playing cricket, and the two girls, partying and in Sutton's case playing two roles, are great; Waterhouse as Adric won't dance ...
Incredible church, as it always seems such a small hamlet but such a big church. Nothing too fancy, the roof is exceptional and craftmanship to repair it is exceptional, there is even a mirror to see the roof, so you don't strain your neck. Lots of history relating back to the last king of the Punjab.
As October opened, the petrol shortages were beginning to recede, but words like cabotage and haulage were reaching public consciousness. A patina of incompetence was beginning to stick to the Government – it turns out that listening to experts, making plans and carrying them out was a better way to run the country than just perpetually reacting to things as if they were a surprise. It also meant that a few people were reminded what those foreigners had been doing all that time. The Wayne Couzens murder trial had resulted in a whole life sentence at the end of September, ...
Sun, 12:56: Issue 61 - Season's Greetings! - Journey Planet - 2021 Hugo Nominee! https://t.co/QsK0gavRCW Features my wild boar recipe, among many other good things. Sun, 14:48: Why 2022 won't be anything like the 2022 of 'Soylent Green' https://t.co/szfl1p3IGL Perhaps a bit too cheerful... Sun, 16:05: RT @cooraysmith: True fact, fanboys. When I started reading Doctor Who Magazine there was debate in the letters page over whether a woman... Sun, 16:34: An Introduction to the Gospel of John, by Raymond E. Brown, ed. Francis J. Moloney https://t.co/r8xgAS4ryM Mon, 10:40: The stucco ceilings of Jan-Christian Hansche part 5: the church of ...
I went out for dinner with my wife last night to a lovely restaurant in Mumbles. We had a three course dinner and drinks and, with tip, the bill came to less than £90. This is the first time we have been out to a restaurant since our holiday in September. It is the sort of luxury we like to indulge in every now and again. If only the same could be said about the Foreign Secretary. The Independent reports that Liz Truss insisted on hosting a lunch at an "incredibly expensive" private club owned by a Tory donor, overruling ...
I'm afraid blogging is losing out to my caring responsibilities and I can't see that changing. So maybe it's worth reminding you that I can also be found on Twitter and Instagram.
Mon 3rd
09:39
The stucco ceilings of Jan-Christian Hansche part 5: the church of Saint Rémi at Franc-Waret
I ventured into darkest Wallonia yeteday, to find another example of the ceiling work of 17th century stucco artist Jan Christian Hansche. This was in the church of St Remigius, Saint Rémi locally, in the village of Franc-Waret near Namur. It's the least well-known of Hansche's work - I found it not on a Belgian site but in the Netherlands Institute for Art History lists. The Wikipedia page for the church goes into great detail about the art and who paid for it, but fails to name any of the artists. I knew that the church is only open for ...
Happy New Year. I come on to a topic I've meant to blog about for ages. In June 2020 Edward Colston's statue in Bristol was pulled down, rolled down the street and dumped in the River Avon to huge controversy. Why was the statue there in the first place, though? The statue was erected in 1895 to falsify history. A plaque on the plinth described him as "one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city". But he wasn't. Bristol had been a major slave trading port, and Edward Colston had been at the heart of it. I ...
The City Council is encouraging householders to recycle their tree and not place it out with the general waste collection for uplift. 'Real' trees are recyclable and can be shredded to produce Discovery Compost. Residents are asked to remove all tinsel and decorations and any pots or stands. Artificial trees are made from a combination of materials and therefore cannot be recycled. To request the uplift of your Christmas tree from your property go to
