Other Men's Flowers

The boat we were on last week held 1,750 passengers and 980 crew. Some of the latter had titles like Chief Engineer, Bosun’s Mate, Master at...

Yes, nice holiday, thank you. Samuel Johnson said that going to sea is like going to prison with the chance of being drowned, and a hundred ...

No more posts for a couple of weeks. We are going in a sort of floating Harrods to the North Sea, particularly the crinkly bits of Norway fo...

Regular readers of Other Men's Flowers - three or four people log on to it almost every month - know me well and are aware that most of ...

According to the Sunday Times, Muammar Gadaffi reveals in his autobiography that he was was a Scout for seven years and drew early inspirati...

“…always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh, Mr Gibbon?" This was the Duke of Gloucester’s less than gracious comment upon receiving the...

We had some vegetarian friends to dinner the other day and gave them pasta with mushrooms and butternut squash. It was really rather nice an...

Phones which take pictures are only one modern example of things which serve more than one purpose; the Garlic-and-Butter-Bean Purée which c...

It seems a new planet has swum into our ken, and with admirable restraint the ever-imaginative Sunday Times today refrains from quoting Keat...

My local superstore (Sainsbury’s) was today setting up a new display stand which announced in huge letters that they offer complimentary med...

The Public Institute for the Stringent Suppression of Unnecessary Polysyllablicity has been carrying out valuable work in its field since i...

"…and what is the use of a blog" , thought Alice, " without pictures or conversations?" I haven’t put many of either in...

More than once while waiting at an airport I have agreed to give five minutes of my time to some nice girl who approaches me with a clipboar...

Writing a post the other day, I wanted to avoid the cliché credit where credit’s due and thought of fair dos instead. But this looked odd ...

Anyone who has used one of these computer things is aware that suppliers of software, not mentioning any names, are generally arrogant, inco...

My son lives and works in Central London. I had this from him this morning: TWO MINUTES' SILENCE I thought some of you with connections ...

There are several ways of starting a story which avoid the tedium of setting a scene, introducing characters and generally footling about wi...

I rather wish I'd booked a room at Gleneagles for this week, though I suppose they wouldn't have let me stay. Not that I would have ...

If you don’t believe in God, there’s not much point in blasphemy. Similarly, now that the Windsors are not universally admired and respected...

I have had many appellations over the years, and it would be pleasant to recall here some of the more complimentary titles that were granted...