A Green and Pleasant Land

A Green and Pleasant Land

The representation of landscape has been a feature of art forever, but for the British their landscape has, since Turner and Constable fought their expressive battles in the hanging days at the Royal Academy, been an obsession. In the Towner collection is an early...
Luxury on Rails

Luxury on Rails

My piece on the Bluebell Line evoked not only a past era but also a slew of responses about luxury and trains, especially given the current furore around the competence or otherwise of those running Britain’s railways. Along the coast of Southern England where I now...
Towards Journeys End

Towards Journeys End

In my last piece on the recovery process I wrote  “My partner is cunning. Each day we set a destination and walked. Each day she made subtly sure that I walked further, gaining strength”  It is now just over a year (5 in 2020) since I came out of hospital, and the...
The Past is Another Country

The Past is Another Country

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”                                                        From the novel by L.P.Hartley: ‘The Go-Between’ 1953 Once upon a time a country almost lost its sense of self. Almost, but in quiet rural corners...