Wooden Dollies and pirates in North Shields
North Shields, where I as a true salt-of-the-earth Geordie and proud of it come from, was founded back in 1225 by some Abbott, as is usual with most of the […]
Category Archives: England
Bridges and Bigots in London
I went for a meal at a Bengali restaurant on Butler’s Wharf alongside the Thames on Saturday night, for a friend’s wedding. His mum is Turkish, dad Bengali and wife […]
Blizzards of blood at Towton
I’ve been obsessed with the Battle of Towton for as long as I can remember. On Palm Sunday 1461, outside the Yorkshire village of that name, Lancastrian and Yorkist forces […]
No sanctuary in Durham Cathedral
“Dear Sir – I came to visit our (not just your) beautiful cathedral last week. As I was taking a couple of photos without flash a bossy little woman in […]
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 […]
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 […]
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