Whilst some of you reading this will probably be nursing and cursing a bit of a hangover tomorrow, those amongst us who harbour a curiosity about political history tend to find the most anticipated aspect of a New Year to
Continue reading →Another Country
Shall I number the words for Thee?
I was intrigued by the comments on the numbered words of the Sunday post – ‘Lost Lexicon of England’ – within a few hours it had reached 150
Continue reading →25 Hour News Review of 2014
The Sunday Post: A Lost Lexicon of England
Arising out of an email exchange around a couple of months ago, this first ‘collaborative piece’ between our esteemed albeit semi-retired landlady and her heir lists 100 misplaced words. They’re in no particular order and are either ones you either don’t
Continue reading →Saturday Evening Posts Worth Reading and the 25- Hour News.
Sony with the Grinch on top.
Is it really in the ‘public interest’ that we should know that a film producer we had never heard of, thought an actress that we don’t much care for, ‘a minimally talented brat’?
I ask, because
Continue reading →London Town is Falling Down
Doctor Samuel Johnson once provided a characteristically vivid description of some of the rather more…erm…slapdash construction work in London, painting a portrait of streets where ‘falling houses thunder on your head’, reflecting the fact that it was not
Continue reading →Essence of Anglia.
I had not thought that I should ever suffer from homesickness. Not once seven years had passed since I left home – and certainly not after I returned. But I have.
Fierce Pearce and the Fake Sheikh.
Hell hath no fury like an electorate that gets what it said it wanted.
His Honour Magistrate Darryl John Pearce is the Australian magistrate accorded second billing in the New South Wales annual review as a mark
Continue reading →Wake Me Up on May 7
QUESTION: When is a government not an effective vehicle for getting things done? ANSWER: When it is locked in a fixed five-year term.
The absence of flexibility in the American Presidential system means either death or
Continue reading →The Sunday Post: A Nation Groomed?
I was recently pondering why I feel so alienated and apart from society. It was only more or less just ten years ago that I was still attending mainstream nightclubs, under my own volition, without feeling as if
Continue reading →Saturday Evening Posts Worth Reading and the 25 Hour News
And another surreal take on the same decade (though not much odder than some recent
Continue reading →Criminal History
Clair Tiltman was a 16-year-old schoolgirl who had a close encounter with an older man over twenty years ago, one that resulted in a conviction for that man yesterday. If you think you know where I’m
Continue reading →Mother and Child Reunion
A century on from the Suffragettes and almost half-a-century on from the second wave of feminism that proved so problematic for the brassiere industry, one would have imagined womanhood had progressed way beyond two archetypes that
Continue reading →Credit Where Credit’s Due
My name is Petunia Winegum and I’ve never had a debt in my life. One of those statements is true, and as this essay is not about nom-de-plumes, I take it you can guess which one.
Continue reading →Flogging a Good Cause
‘She is constantly visited by amateurs of birch discipline, being always furnished with brooms of green birch and of the best quality, and is always happy to see any friend that feels himself inclinable to spend
Continue reading →Alas! Poor Jeremy
The Elm House branch of the conspiracy industry may tie-in with contemporary convictions of clandestine satanic abuse rings in the highest echelons of the British establishment, but it also connects the apparently liberal 21st century society
Continue reading →The Sunday Post: As Good as it Gets
The standard celebrity Q&A one sees with monotonous regularity on the inside back page of the Radio Times or in your average upmarket Sunday supplement often includes the ‘highlight of your life’ question. Beyond the usual
Continue reading →Saturday Evening Posts Worth Reading and the 25 Hour News
The Wind of Change
IT’S HERE AT LAST! YOUR NEW-LOOK, NEW-IMPROVED RACCOON ARMS!
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
THE TIMES they are a changing! A long-overdue facelift is needed for this dusty old blog and now that an exciting new editor
Continue reading →The Last Taboo.
I don’t ‘do’ taboos; neither does my imaginary friend. Have you met my imaginary friend? She’s called ‘Contraria’; she starts every sentence with ‘On the other hand’, or ‘Looked at a different way’ – and I have lots of
Continue reading →The Finale – part two.
As it happens, Duncroft was the last of the plates to come to rest – over the last five weeks, I also had to move house, move country – and move
Continue reading →