Thomas Bewick – Wood Engraver Par Excellence
I recently had a break in Northumberland and dropped in to see a few favourite haunts as well as some new ones that have been opened since I unaccountably left […]
Category Archives: England
The Posh Washingtons of Olde England
This is Washington Old Hall in the North East of England, where I myself was born and bred. We have the originals of Washington, Boston, Concord and numerous other locations […]
At home with Sir Walter Scott
For anyone who loves Sir Walter Scott, Abbotsford is a place of pilgrimage. I arrived there on a drizzly afternoon in early September, crushing sodden leaves underfoot and tightening my […]
Falstaff 1, Little Nell 0
I think that Dickens’s childhood stint in the soul-destroying blacking factory was the driving force behind his manic energy, restless creativity and ultimately his early death. If he hadn’t been […]
Standing up for Shakespeare
I don’t know how they arrange things these days but when I was in secondary school Shakespeare was de rigueur. Looking back, it must have been a nightmare for our […]
Great Limbs Gone to Chaos
The massive barbican broods like the wreck of a mythic hero, brought to his knees by time but still a commanding presence, keeping a watchful eye on the village that […]
Where there’s a Will
The Golden Bee is the archetypal Tudor-style Olde England tavern in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s stomping ground. Next door is the living history museum, The Falstaff Experience. Like all English school kids […]
Geordie Frankenstein, or Wor Victor
Cragside has long been my favourite English house. It’s the sort of place Baron Frankenstein would have lived in if he’d had the great good fortune to win, as Cecil […]
The Great God Cthulhu makes landfall in Blythe
I thought Swindon was the most depressing town in England until I discovered the delights of Blythe on the north east coast this winter. It was raining too, and with […]
Egyptian revival in Hackney
Hackney’s not nearly as bad as it was when I lived round there in the early 1980s, and in fact has become quite the place to see and be seen […]
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