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Tag Archives: The Oldie

The Kings and I

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

A festive gripe about Cornelius’s lovely ‘Three Kings‘ – and the solo I have never got to sing in it. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Alexandra Coghlan, All Saints Maidstone, baritones, barristers, Bayreuth, BBC Books, carols, cellos, Christmas, Christmas Badger Singers, English, Franz Liszt, Gerald Finley, German, Germans, girlfriends, Hampton Court, HN Bate, Ivor Atkins, King's College London, Knightsbridge, men, music, Oxford University, Peter Cornelius, Radio 3, silk, singing, Smarden, Southwark Cathedral, Sri Lanka, The Judd School, translation, University of St Andrews, YouTube | Comments (0)

Summoning Pearl Harbor

Thursday, December 7, 2017

A commemoration of Pearl Harbor, through Alexander Nemerov’s ekphrastic explorations. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged air travel, Aleutian Islands, Alexander Nemerov, America, art, Congress, David Zwirner Books, ekphrasis, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hawaii, history, Japan, Jimmy Roosevelt, navy, Stanford, USMC, war | Comments (0)

Mortality 101 – or; Catullus at the graveside

Saturday, November 11, 2017

The Oldie runs my poem for the Armistice commemorations. — For The Oldie

Filed in Poetry, Translation | Also tagged Armistice Day, army, brothers, Catullus, death, Latin, Troy, war | Comments (0)

I ink, therefore I am

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

On the choice and acquisition of my one and only tattoo. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, Anthony McGowan, army, Asterix, buffalos, Classics, Cleopatra, Egyptology, Elizabeth Taylor, gladiators, Greek, Latin, men, mothers, opera, Oxford, Rome, Russell Crowe, Samoan, sewerage, South Africa, SPQR, tattoos, war | Comments (0)

An Oxford squaddie

Saturday, October 14, 2017

From deer park to gun park… . Sixteen years ago, American and British forces hurled themselves into Afghanistan the same week I arrived at Magdalen College, Oxford. I didn’t give them much thought – although the ‘War on Terror’ was immediately everywhere. I had an Egyptology degree to get to grips with; and choral evensong […]

Filed in feature, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, army, education, Frank Ledwidge, George MacDonald Fraser, Honourable Artillery Company, Max Boot, me, Oxford University, singing, TE Lawrence, war, Yorkshire | Comments (0)

Veterans of modern wars

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

In a mid-September interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Baron Richards of Herstmonceux (GCB, CBE, DSO, DL – better known as General David Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff) made a comment to the effect that “a part-time soldier cannot be as effective as someone who’s devoted his life to it and puts on a […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, army, Baron Richards of Herstmonceux, Brigadier James Roddis, Bruce Dickinson, children, David Dickinson, death, Ed Drummond-Baxter, employment, food, Honourable Artillery Company, Iraq, Iron Maiden, Jack Sadler, Ted Heath, war | Comments (0)

‘Understanded of the people’?

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

The Prayer Book Society helps trainee priests with the ‘Shakespearey’ language. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged (il)literacy, Book of Common Prayer, Daily Telegraph, Prayer Book Society, religion, words | Comments (0)

I came, I saw, I conkered

Thursday, September 7, 2017

A little bit of seasonal nostalgia. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged autumn, blogs, conkers, education, life, sport, trees | Comments (0)

An unsigned note

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Oldie readers will need no reminding that the heart of John le Carré’s ‘Circus’ – indeed, of his entire ouevre – is one George Smiley OBE. From Call for the Dead (in ’61) to the classic ‘Karla trilogy’, and on til (almost) the collapse of Communism, he battled foe and, sometimes, friend, quite often in […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Communism, George Smiley, illustration, John le Carré, London, maps, Mike Hall, Penguin, publishing, spies, Waterstone's | Comments (0)