A Most Brutal Affair..

This is the story of Emmett Louis Till. He was a young man from Chicago. In August 1955, he travelled to a town called Money, Mississippi, to stay with relatives, including his uncle, Mose Wright. Emmett was only 14 years old. He was, by all accounts, a lively, happy mischievous kid who liked to spend... Continue Reading →

Sunday in Kansas …

It’s Sunday morning, and it’s raining. Heavily. The rain hits the gutters with the precision of Buddy Rich; it syncopates against the windows, sparks against the red planter in the garden; and makes the tyres sing a silky song as the cars sail along the tarmac by my door. It was a rainy day in... Continue Reading →

1938 – The World Turns…

I mentioned in ‘and about me’ how Shirer's book gave me a sense of the breadth of the Second World War as a subject for study; of how I came to understand that it had roots way before the shameful carving-up of Poland between Hitler and Stalin. In the years preceding that infamous act, another,... Continue Reading →

Lockdown Life – day 39…

In the Days of the Comet... Although I’ve stolen the strap-line from the title of H.G.Wells novel, in which a comet causes a change in the air with the result that ‘The great Change has come for evermore, happiness and beauty are our atmosphere, there is peace on earth and good will to all men’,... Continue Reading →

The Continuing Adventures of Hergé…

In a previous post I described how, at the age of about eight, the Tintin books arrived in my world thanks to the small collection in Mr Kennick’s classroom. Actually, on reflection, I was probably aware of the characters earlier thanks to the Belvision episodes of ‘Hergé’s Adventures of TinTin’ which first aired on the... Continue Reading →

Herge’s Adventures of TinTin!!!

Writing that title, I immediately heard the iconic voice from the "Belvision" animated series of the 1960's, which I suppose was my first awareness of the character. But my first real encounter with Hergé's creations came at Junior school, or "Primary" as it would now be called. I was 8 years old, and I can... Continue Reading →

Lockdown life – day 22…

Wow, day 22. 22 days since the quarantine officially began; since my letter from the NHS dropped on the mat. 22 days since the restrictions necessary to prevent the spread of Covid-19 formally began; and since our lives changed for the time being. Of course, it’s easy for me to cope. I don’t have to... Continue Reading →

Lockdown life – day 14…

Here we are again. Well, to be precise, here I am. And that’s exactly where I’ve been for the last two weeks - at home. Where I hope you are, if you should Anyway, what’s new? Nothing. Nix. Still, another day, another book to read. This time, it’s Julian Jackson’s biography of Charles de Gaulle,... Continue Reading →

An impression made…

I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this site about the influence on my reading interests of the first book about the Second World War which I read, Shirer’s ‘Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’. So, while I'm under house arrest, I thought I'd revisit an article which I wrote a couple of years ago. "This edition... Continue Reading →

A Revised View…

My post ‘1938 - The World Turns’ discussed some of the issues of Neville Chamberlain and the British Government's policy of appeasement towards European dictators in the 1930's, particularly Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.   I portrayed Chamberlain as a somewhat misdirected figure, arrogant and naive in his belief that war could be avoided by meeting Hitler's... Continue Reading →

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