Other Men's Flowers

I have already written about two people who became famous by virtue of their total lack of talent, or even competence, in their respective f...

The recent weather conditions in the south of England have apparently been good for spiders and they are around in force. I am no arachnopho...

Watching recently a sober and well researched documentary about modern fundamentalists of various kinds, it struck me how devil-worshippers ...

Last week’s bright spot was the news that officials hoping to attract tourists to Jerusalem had distributed tens of thousands of leaflets pr...

Only those who know the difference between Ruy Lopez and Jennifer will be following closely the news from Kalmykia this week. In Elista, a ...

Yesterday I switched on the BBC one o'clock news while I was eating my lunch and heard "....the Prime Minister has confessed that h...

According to an absolutely serious, even po-faced, report in the Sunday Times yesterday: BAE Systems, one of the world’s biggest arms manufa...

Looking in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for something on the great explorer Wilfred Thesiger I drew a blank and was disappo...

Last year I wrote a post about meeting people on the net and mentioned the advantages of making friends that way. I have since discovered ...

His own mother called him the Great Beast and he rather enjoyed being described as the wickedest man in the world. This of course was an exa...

When politicians lay down their heavy burden they often say that this will enable them to spend more time with their family. It is not only ...

Here is an account of an incident. It is not very interesting but reading what the outcome was may be helpful to anyone who is involved in a...

…or take a dekko [n. vagrant’s slang, ex Romany dik =to look. In army, common since ca.1890, via Hindustani] …or have a shufty [n. or v. RAF...

Last Sunday’s edition of the usually trashy Observer colour supplement was packed with useful stuff, a real Thinking Person’s guide to life...

The other day one of my (grown-up) daughters queried the way I said Fat Controller and not Fat Controller (I cannot remember how the subje...

It occurs to me that since it became possible earlier this year to consult a whole range of hugely estimable reference books online, free , ...

It is salutary to be reminded that the consolations and guidance of religion are available not only to us fortunate Anglicans but also to th...

It has recently been revealed that in some rural areas of China it has been common practice to hold a striptease show at funerals in order ...

An angry email came pouring in this morning complaining that I have failed to comply with that clause of the OMF Charter in which there is a...

It is well known that we British have established more organisations which enable like-minded people to get together than any other nation. ...