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Author Archives: A S H Smyth

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, February 6, 2017

. The telephone has a tendency to render the girl operators left-eared. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 4 1908 . Eight wickets for eight runs is the worst batting collapse in Twenty20 international cricket. St Blaise is the patron saint of sore throats, and of knitting. Estonian literature suffers from a dearth of stories […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged Chaucer, Chrysippus, cricket, drink, driving, Estonia, health, history, humour, information, Japan, knitting, law, literature, Mount Rushmore, Nelson Evening Mail, Nixon, novels, phones, politics, Samuel Derrick, science, Secret Service, sex, Shakespeare, St Blaise, statuary, toilets, tramps, turnips | Comments (0)

A complete list of all those who have gone fishing, according to Benjamin Britten

Sunday, February 5, 2017

1) Old Joe 2) Young Joe 3) You Know

Filed in Non-fictions | Tagged Benjamin Britten, fishing, micro-non-fiction, Montagu Slater, opera, The Pikey Laureate | Comments (0)

Brief lives: Samuel Derrick

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Samuel Derrick (1724-69), was an Irish writer, friend of Dr Johnson, Boswell, and Tobias Smollett, and master of the ceremonies at both Bath and Tunbridge Wells. He published, among other works: The Dramatic Censor, No. 1; Sylla, a dramatic entertainment, from the French of Frederick II of Prussia; A Voyage from the Moon, from the […]

Filed in Non-fictions | Tagged Bath, Brief lives, Chester, Corke, Cyrano de Bergerac, Dryden, finance, Frederick II, French, James Boswell, Juvenal, Latin, Liverpool, London, Ossian, Poetry, prostitution, Prussia, publishing, Samuel Derrick, Samuel Johnson, the Irish, theatre, Tobias Smollett, Tunbridge Wells, writing | Comments (0)

Luck of the Irish – two letters

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

I NAT. TEL. JESMOND 343. Imperial Hotel, Jesmond Road, Newcastle on Tyne 15th Dec 1907 . My dear Victor, …………………..It is my good fortune once more to ask you for your congratulations! This time it is on a very fine appointment as Navigating Officer of H.M.S. “Lord Nelson”, a battleship almost completed, and which is […]

Filed in Non-fictions | Tagged Adrian Holt Smyth, Britain, brothers, Dublin, Dudley de Chair, Ireland, letters, marriage, Newcastle, Royal Navy, the Thames, Victor Emmanuel Smyth, WW1 | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, January 30, 2017

. Pineapples are so plentiful in Natal at certain seasons that they are not worth carting to market, and so are often given to pigs. — The Nelson Evening Mail, September 27 1906 . The French king Louis XIII was known as ‘the Just’ because he was born under the sign of the Libra. Maxwell […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged America, Aristarchus, astrology, books, Bromley, buses, Cervantes, children, Cuba, finance, Finland, Greek, Greenwich, Ian Fleming, Jeremy McConnell, Latin, Lewisham, punctuation, radio, rivers, sea-faring, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Stephanie Davis, tea, the Bible, the French, the moon, train-travel, Walford | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, January 23, 2017

. Omnibuses in Holland are fitted with letter-boxes. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 13 1908 . A ‘havelock’ is the flap of cloth that hangs down from a soldier’s kepi, to protect the neck. Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the United States drew bigger crowds to Washington DC than any previous inauguration. The […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged anatomy, army, cards, Donald Trump, Duff Cooper, education, Giles Coren, hats, health, Holland, James Joyce, Jeffrey Bernard, Jim Norton, music, novels, otters, post, Pratt's, Rhodes, Spectator, The Times, Tunbridge Wells, Washington, WW2 | Comments (0)

Mortality 101 – or; Catullus at the graveside

Friday, November 11, 2016

‘I want to explain about the Catullus poem … Catullus wrote poem 101 for his brother who died in the Troad.’ — Anne Carson . I have come, my brother, over lands and oceans, to this field of bones to observe the rituals of the final hour, and mumble pointless words above your ashes. Misfortune took […]

Filed in Poetry, Translation | Tagged Anne Carson, brothers, Catullus, death, Latin, Poetry, Troy, war | Comments (0)

WHAT’S YOUR FULL NAME, RANK, AND SERIAL NUMBER (SPECIAL OPS EDITION)?

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Your Full Name, Rank, and Serial Number (Special Ops Edition) is: ‘Bob’ .

Filed in Fictions | Tagged micro-fiction, the internet, war | Comments (0)

Intellectual MOT

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Some thoughts on the enquiring mind, slang, and judging a book by its cover – in correspondence with Tia Goonaratna. — For The Sunday Leader

Filed in interview, Journalism | Tagged Angela Carter, books, Christopher Hitchens, Churchill, dictionaries, history, intellectuals, literature, Mongols, Peter Frankopan, slang, Sri Lanka, The Sunday Leader, Tia Goonaratna, Waterstone's | Comments (0)

Battle

Friday, October 14, 2016

for Harry . When Edward was king, Harold, an English earl, and his horsemen rode to Bosham, to the church there. Harold then crossed the sea, his sails full of wind, and came into the domain of Count Guy. Guy took Harold prisoner, and leading him away to Beaurain, held him captive there. Harold and Guy […]

Filed in Translation | Tagged 1066, Bayeux, England, France, Harold, Hastings, history, Latin, needlework, Normans, William the Conqueror | Comments (0)