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Tag Archives: London

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, December 2, 2019

. There are more kilts in London than in Scotland. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Thursday, May 9 1907 . At 45% of the population, white Christians are a shrinking demographic in America. Hermal eggings are so leek. No sensitive person would choose to be the historian of the Irish asylums in the first part of the […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged America, children, clothing, drink, ducks, English, food, goldfish, health, Hegel, history, holidays, humour, madness, Nelson Evening Mail, new, politics, religion, Rioja, Robert Southey, Russia, satire, Scotland, Smak, Spinoza, the Irish, WG Grace | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, October 14, 2019

. The King has a collection of 170 curious walking sticks. One is made from one of the piles of old London Bridge. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Wednesday, April 10 1907 . All the best people are born in October. In Moldova (and Czechoslovakia), ‘carp’ is spelled ‘crap’. In 1492 Native Americans discovered Columbus lost […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged books, buses, Christopher Columbus, clothing, cutlery, Czechoslovakia, democracy, engineering, fish, grandmothers, health, honey, Max Hastings, Moldova, monarchy, mountains, Mozart, Native Americans, Nelson Evening Mail, news, October, painting, piles, rugby, Rugby World Cup 2019, Russia, satire, Scotland, sex, stupidity, termites, walking sticks, war | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, September 23, 2019

. John Stow, author of the Survey of London, was rewarded by James I with a licence to beg. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Friday, August 17 1906 . In Germany, young ladies have no sex. ‘Silver Billy’ Beldham was blond, and is said to have fathered 39 children. Thom Yorke’s left eye is made […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Alexander von Humboldt, anatomy, Britain, children, Chinese, cricket, Edward Said, eels, fairies, Germany, James I, John Stow, law, money, Nelson Evening Mail, Nevada, Poetry, satire, sex, ships, sport, stupidity, the internet, the Middle East, Thom Yorke, vegetables, William Beldham, women, words, writers, Xerxes | Comments (0)

Did The English Patient send me to Afghanistan?

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Two nights from now, by way of (ahem) a birthday present, I will be attending a live-orchestra screening of The English Patient at the Albert Hall. I had invited an old friend, a raven-haired young lady (named in Debrett’s) of impossibly romantic tendency, who first exposed me to the film in, I’d say, about 1998 […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Academy Awards, Afghanistan, Ahmed Hassanein, air travel, American University in Cairo, anatomy, Anthony Minghella, Arabic, army, Banana Republic, bedouin, Benny Goodman, Booker Prize, books, bookshops, Brighton, Bruce Chatwin, Byron, Canada, Charing Cross Road, Christopher Hitchens, clothing, Debrett's, deserts, Dorset, Egypt, Egyptology, exploration, film, French Foreign Legion, Gabriel Yared, Geoff Dyer, Geographical, Geographical Journal, Herodotus, Hungarian, Hungary, JM Coetzee, John Ball, John Hare, Joseph Conrad, Justin Marozzi, Kensington Gore, Kristen Scott Thomas, László Almásy, Long Range Desert Group, Lorenz Hart, love, Michael Ondaatje, mountains, music, novels, Orientalism, Oscar Wilde, Oxford, Picador, plums, Ralph Bagnold, Ralph Fiennes, Ranulph Fiennes, Richard Bermann, Robert Twigger, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Geographical Society, Saul Kelly, Sinai, SOE, song, South Africa, the Himalayas, the Nile, The Oldie, the Sahara, the Western Desert, war, WG Sebald, William Golding, wind, women, WW2, YouTube, Zerzura | Comments (0)

M.O.’s m.o. – or; Everybody wants to be like Mike

Thursday, June 7, 2018

A review of Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight. — For The Spectator

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged crime, ethnography, fiction, Florence, geography, intelligence, Libya, memory, Michael Ondaatje, spies. Aramaic, St Lucia, The Spectator, the Thames, Trieste, writers, writing, WW2 | Comments (0)

Spies like us?

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

A less-than-Smiley response to John le Carré. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged books, George Smiley, John le Carré, lexicons, maps, memoir, MI5, MI6, Penguin, spies, The Oldie, walking | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, April 2, 2018

. There are more Jews in New York than there are in Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland put together. They worship in 37 synagogues. Every fifth person belongs to the family of Abraham. — The Nelson Evening Mail, December 1 1906 . Coleraine Blackjack is the cheapest porter in the world. Thomas Nelson […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged anatomy, Australia, Ben Affleck, books, Britain, Bruca Chatwin, Canada, Coleraine, Colombo, computers, crime, Cuba, death, Devon, drink, East Africa, emojis, flags, France, Germany, health, hyenas, Italy, Judaism, Microsoft, money, Nelson E, New York, Northern Ireland, philosophy, religion, River Dart, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, tattoos, Thomas Nelson, West Africa, West Dart, Wittgenstein | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, March 19, 2018

. The German army has the healthiest troops in the world. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 13 1908 . In January 2001 a BBC documentary crew filmed the everyday goings on in a typical workplace. The skin of fantas melons smells of BO. There’s 25% off Rovic floors. Philip Hensher will read any old crap. […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged army, BBC, bees, Britain, China, chips, computers, construction, criticism, Devon, eyes, fruit, Germany, health, Journalism, Mesopotamia, Nelson Evening Mail, North Devon Journal, Philip Hensher, pronunciation, rivers, Russians, sand, smells, Tibet, work | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 20, 2017

. More than 6000 editions of the “Imitation of Christ”, ascribed to Thomas a Kempis, have been issued in the past 400 years. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 21 1907 . The record for the fastest hole in golf is 32.7 seconds. Acres of quiet farmland set a peaceful scene. ‘Bert’ is like a […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged agriculture, air travel, anatomy, Athens, chocolate, Christianity, diplomacy, education, elephant, golf, Hector, Iran, maniacs, money, music, Muslims, Nelson Evening Mail, Nobel Prize for Literature, nomenclature, nurses, publishing, reality, religion, security, sex, singing, Smooth Radio, Special Air Service, Sri Lanka, Tarjei Vesaas, the Sinhalese, Thomas á Kempis, WWE | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 13, 2017

. Throughout Denmark there is not one person over 10 years of age who cannot read or write. — The Nelson Evening Mail, September 4 1906 . There is a whale whose voice is too low to communicate with other whales. Seatbelts do not statistically improve your chances of surviving a car accident. London’s Mithraic temple is […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged accidents, advertising, Aeneas, anatomy, archaeology, Aung San Suu Kyi, Basque, Bell's, Bloomberg, cars, Christmas, cliché, criticism, Daniel O'Donnell, Dante, Denmark, drink, education, Euclid, Facebook, finance, humans, John Lewis, law, limbo, maths, Missouri, Mithras, music, Myanmar, Nelson Evening Mail, Nicholas Lezard, Nobel Peace Prize, nomenclature, philosophy, Poetry, politics, religion, sex, singing, the West, traditions, whales, whisky, women | Comments (0)