ON Friday 13th December, I decided to step back from my weekly column for The Press and Telegraph and Argus after two fascinating years. Why? Mainly to explore new literary pastures as a novelist and poet.
THE truth will set you free. So the Bible told us long ago. Whether you are religious or not, the saying still bears scrutiny.
WHAT is the most important issue in our winter election? A question with no clear answer.
ACCORDING to the great poet Wordsworth, “The child is father of the man”. Certainly our beginnings often determine our future when it comes to education, jobs, housing, even long-term health.
SOME truths are hiding in plain sight. That’s how it feels with the Christmas election as it enters its second week. Ordinary people look on as spectators while the vast communication machines of television, radio, newspapers and social media grind into action.
HOW much should Britain pay to save the planet from our manmade climate crisis? A daft question, you might think. After all, without a healthy planet, we’ll all pay a potentially fatal price.
TOMORROW as dusk gathers, all over Britain gangs of pint-sized ghouls and witches will wander the streets, watched over by parents in civvies worried about just how many sweets their kids can consume in one evening. Millions of grinning heads back-lit by tea-lights will appear on windowsills and garden walls: pumpkin lanterns celebrating Halloween.
RECENTLY, I revisited a nightmare from history: the traumatic break up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. My motive was a spot of background research for a work of fiction. Yet, as is so often the case, facts from history echo beyond their own time. As do history’s lessons.
LAST week, the world’s most prestigious authority when it comes to the oil industry, the Climate Accountability Institute, published some devastating data.
A MILD-MANNERED lady of my acquaintance recently shocked me. We were chatting on the street corner when someone passed by, towed by a brace of poodles. She remarked: “There are far too many dogs.”
