. 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
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Also tagged books, buses, Christopher Columbus, clothing, cutlery, Czechoslovakia, democracy, engineering, fish, grandmothers, health, honey, London, 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
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Thursday, October 10, 2019
Review of Justin Marozzi’s Islamic Empires: Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization. — For Geographical
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged Allen Lane, Arabs, architecture, Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Constantinople, Cordoba, Damascus, death, Doha, Dubai, Geographical, history, Isfahan, Islam, Jerusalsm, Justin Marozzi, Kabul, Mecca, money, non-fiction, religion, Royal Geographical Society, Samarkand, travel, Tripoli
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Monday, September 30, 2019
. Football was a crime in England during the reign of Henry VIII. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Tuesday, October 2 1906 . The moon is up for longer than the sun. Your antivirus expires in 29 days. The Dogmata Theologica of Petavius are a work of incredible labour and compass. The steep limestone walls of a […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged America, anatomy, astronomy, books, eggs, England, expectoration, football, geology, health, Henry VIII, homosexuality, humanity, law, money, Nelson Evening Mail, Oscar Wilde, pachyderms, Petavius, religion, Russians, satire, scholarship, Sri Lanka, the Chinese, university
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Sunday, September 1, 2019
Chastise: The Dambusters Story 1943 By Max Hastings William Collins £25 . By 1943, after nearly four years of war ‘ameliorated [only] by a thin gruel of successes,’ Britain and her western allies had little to boast in terms of their offensive victories; the lion’s share of the burden was very clearly being shouldered by […]
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged Bomber Command, Dambusters, death, engineering, film, Germany, Guy Gibson, history, Max Hastings, non-fiction, RAF, Sir Arthur Harris, Sir Charles Portal, the Commonwealth, The Oldie, William Collins, WW2
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Yasuke: The True Story of an African Samurai by Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard Sphere £20 (hardback) . In late July 1579, an enormous, well-dressed and well-armed African bodyguard stepped off a boat into the southern Japanese port of Kochinotsu. Yasuke – perhaps from ‘Isaac’ in Amharic – had (probably) been abducted as a child […]
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged Alessandro Valignano, Amharic, China, Christianity, Ethiopia, Geoffrey Girard, Geographical, Japan, Japanese, Jesuits, religion, samurai, the East Indies, Thomas Lockley
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. Thomas King was fined 12s, or eight days’ hard labour, at the Thames Police Court for intoxication. While in this state he asked a pawnbroker to advance 2s on a baby. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Wednesday, April 10 1907 . There are 2000 non-functioning satellites in space. Lord Reith did not want people to enjoy […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged Aethelred the Unready, America, anatomy, babies, Ceylon, crime, drink, education, Indians, James Joyce, jungles, Lord Reith, money, Nelson Evening Mail, Panama, radio, religion, seafood, shipping, space, tea, the Japanese
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Monday, February 25, 2019
6.2.41 I am given to understand that this is the 6th day of Feb. but for the life of me I don’t know what day of the week it is. Anyhow it doesn’t make any difference here. Excuse the dirt. A.A.¹ has just spilt some tea on my pad. The journey from the forest² to these […]
Filed in Non-fictions
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Also tagged Abyssinia, Allan Arnott, biltong, Cape Point, censorship, Cyril Cochran, death, East Africa, Ethiopia, food, Gerald Fayle, Gerald Fayle Preston Smyth, Gerald Spence Smyth, infantry, Italians, letters, Mega, Micky Williamson, Muslims, Somalis, South Africa, South Africans, the Irish, WWII
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Wednesday, October 31, 2018
On Andrew Roberts’ Churchill: Walking with Destiny. — For The Oldie
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
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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, London, 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, WG Sebald, William Golding, wind, women, WW2, YouTube, Zerzura
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Tuesday, September 4, 2018
About the Bruegels on my bedroom wall. — For The Oldie
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged AA Gill, anatomy, art, Athena International, Bath, Brussels, Carmina Burana, chickens, childhood, death, Don DeLillo, drawing, drink, etching, Flanders, Fleet Foxes, gambling, Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, Jürgen Müller, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Nabokov, painting, peasantry, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Pieter Bruegel the Younger, pissing, religion, TASCHEN, the Duke of Alba, the Habsburgs, The Holburne Museum, The Oldie, the Spanish Inquisition, the tower of Babel, Thomas Schauerte, Tom Frantzen, Vienna, weddings, WH Auden
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