It’s a Dog’s Life

A Doctor’s Waiting Room rarely offers a wide choice of reading material and recently I found myself obliged to read an ageing copy of Country Life (there is nothing wrong with the publication but it would not feature as a primary choice).  As with most publications I found myself drawn to the Letters Page since…

HMS Hood Sea Trials on the River Clyde Max Hastings’s majestic book – Churchill – Finest Years – certainly led this reader to think again about the conduct of World War II.  Although history is open to different interpretations, the author’s views on the British Armed Forces,  President Roosevelt (FDR), the role of the parsimonious…

Young Soldiers (25 August 2019) In the context of the recruitment of young soldiers and the operational limitations on their deployment, Charles Holden (Daily Telegraph 24 Aug) made this crucially accurate observation: “Many people under 18 have been failed by the educational system and the Army invariably rectifies this in a disciplined. Leading to worthwhile…

(Sub-Title: Did I ever have a sense of humour – 25 August 2019) Many of us would struggle to find an agreed definition of a sense of humour, after all we laugh at different things stretching from unalloyed joy at seeing someone slip on a banana skin to a lengthy witty tale by a gifted…

(Sub Title: Just Another Rant) Disclaimer. Having already outlived the time allocated to me under Biblical rules I hereby claim the right to wander from the point and to display spells of incoherence. Truth to tell, as the kernel of this particular outburst began to develop other tangential thoughts emerged that have compelled me to include a…

(Sub Title: What can one say? The safe answer to the question ‘what can one say?’ might be to keep schtum. However many will be disappointed to know that such a response would have been entirely out of character – sorry. After some three years of confusion we seem to be moving to a new surreal world…

Introduction The process of re-reading The Captain – The Life and Times of Simon Raven has prompted some thoughts. It is a book that merits multiple re-readings if only to understand the references to Greek mythology. Unless otherwise stated the quotations offered below are from the book. There was a temptation to call this piece ‘BAOR in the…

Oldies may recall the halcyon days when General Brian Robertson Late RE (ennobled by Labour Premier Clement Attlee as 1st Baron Robertson of Oakridge) filled the post of Chairman[i] of the British Transport Commission. That said, the General may not have agreed that those railways days were idyllically happy and peaceful ones for him as the…

  By Arousal Stillskin (nom de plume for the original article) “For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me.” AA Milne NO APOLOGY As Constance Wu once put it: “You’re never going to please everyone, and if you do, there’s something wrong”. Although the sentiment of her words may have been…

January 11, 2020 INTRODUCTION These three motoring-related issues have been gnawing away at my equanimity for a number of years: ·        Daylight driving with headlights turned on. ·        Reverse parking in public car parks. ·        Locating pedestrian crossings near to roundabouts. Although any normal egotist hopes that their cri de Coeur might excite some interest, this author accepts…