I have just finished another one of Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles. Do you read a book by her, or rather, eat it slowly, blindfolded, seeking to identify the ingredients that constitute its rich sauces? Each and every page there is cause to pause, to peel back the deceptive words for the hidden nuances that lie …
Category Archives: history
I just skipped the description, I didn’t miss much… Did I?
No-one wants descriptions these days, they haven’t got the patience. Oh God, great long boring description. I skipped it. Didn’t miss much. I was just thinking how fortunate we are to have such a wonderful luxury. In the past reading was one of the affordable pleasures and Dickens published his work in a series of …
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Leeds leads
We arrived back from Spain at 11:30pm. The booked taxi did turn up and we careered through the Yorkshire countryside, rolling around in the back seat. We fell 23 degrees C in three hours, down to a welcome of three miserly degrees above freezing. Why are butchers always cheery? As I brought a couple of …
Moorish is moreish
Cordoba has always been a melting pot and today is no different. We wander through streets thick with milling tourists, and for the first time we have struck gold with the marketing opportunities. Tacky tourist shops line the narrow streets. Tiles and dolls, frocks and leather vie for attention. All very expensive and very, very …
Speed Tourists
Today we were speed tourists. It might have been somewhat more leisurely had I remembered to turn left. But on we sailed until twenty minutes to the station became forty-five minutes. We arrived just as the train from Seville to Cadiz glided smoothly out of Santa Justa Estacion. We passed an hour in a frivolous …
The Ironies of Progress
“What ideas individuals attach to the word “Millennium” I know not; but I know that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little if any misery and with intelligence and happiness improved an hundredfold; and no obstacle intervenes at this moment except ignorance to prevent …
Salatheel 