Clik here to view.
My drug of choice
“I thought I’d make a cup of tea”, were the last murmured words of the mother of Janet Frame, NZ writer, as she died in her husband’s arms in the kitchen. They could well be mine… tea for me marks...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The wrong lion?
The man who killed Cecil the lion, seems to be contrite about killing the wrong lion. He is reported as saying that he hadn’t realised he was hunting a protected one. But killing any lion (and all the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Living takes up all my time
As I drove home this morning I wondered how often I had driven along that same country road with all its winds and curves and hills and one way bridges… ruminating about this, I went back randomly to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What IS so wicked about knitting?
Knitting was for old ladies or dowdy ones when I was a child. My stepmother and her friends, or anyone with pretensions to chic would not have been seen dead with a pair of knitting needles in their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pit-stop for blogging
The vicissitudes of the life, the overwhelming winter, the pressures of people – friendly or otherwise, have caused me to go into overload, to take my eye off the ball, or in this case, my focus off...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Behind every great….
‘Behind every great man stands a great woman’, one of my dearest friends declared, a propos Winston Churchill and the love of his life, his wife Clementine, and of Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor. We...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The world – our village
Whenever we hear the sound of a helicopter circling overhead, we know that someone is in trouble in our little village. The helicopter lands on the school playing field, and the one in need is whisked...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Following your bliss
Follow your bliss, urged the great Joseph Campbell – this used to sound like heaven. Just doing everything you wanted! Later – just slightly wiser- I supposed this heaven was probably...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Snakes alive !
Mrs Tiggywinkle, her rounded figure enveloped in her apron, sweet face framed by a ruff of prickles and a frilly white bonnet, quizzical grey eyes gazing kindly out on the world, catching up with her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
War and Peace
I stumbled on a quote from Winston Churchill at the beginning of the chapter of a book I was reading. He was talking to the boys of Harrow, his old school, just after the Battle of Britain… the leader...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Helicopters, hallucinations and hospital
.It only took two seconds. But since the consequences of those two seconds have dominated my life for the last six months, and promise to do so for some months yet, I feel faintly justified in sharing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Kintsugi, art and life
I wrote a column about my collection of cracked and chipped blue and white china thirty years ago. Some people received the idea of a collection of cracked china with derision and laughter… something...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The love of three women who changed the world
Taking a small blue hard back book down from my parent’s shelves I began reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s book: “Travels with a Donkey”. I persevered, but the relentless beating and prodding of what he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Netflix-The Crown-The truth about the Royals?
Once upon a time, as all good fairy tales start (does anyone tell them nowadays?) I was commissioned to write a book about the Royals who had visited this country (New Zealand). They were many,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Royals, the truth, and The Crown Part 2
She does a marvellous job conveying the goodness, sincerity and intelligence of the Queen, but Claire Foy’s performance misses one thing – the Queen’s sparkling wit and flashing smile which lights up...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Netflix Royals -Margaret, the wild card – last instalment
She was a woman who in her time played many parts, to misquote Shakespeare. Starting life as her father’s pet, she became fashion’s darling, tragic heroine, the centre of swinging London with her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ode to friendship
Wherever I look there are the tokens, and maybe calling them tokens is a misuse of the word. On the bookcase is a round blue stone, and written on it are the words: ‘ In the bonds of love we meet,’...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rubbing shoulders with the rich, the famous, and the forgotten
I wish I could remember what Dr Seuss said when I was interviewing him back in the late sixties. (I’ve never kept clippings of my articles, which I sometimes regret) All I can remember at this distance...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Man and animals caught in the net of life and time
Wenka was born on the 21 May 1954, which makes her sixty- three years old this year. She has been in prisons and endured forms of torture, as well as abandonment, much grief and loneliness, throughout...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fashion and fun
As I mulled over the ins and outs and ups and downs of buying a grey T-shirt – I’m short of cool T-shirts as my clothes are still packed up in my old school trunk, (few people know what these are...
View Article