Owning Up When I went to Acklam Hall Grammar School in 1957 I had a headmaster who was steeped in what many people think of as traditional British traditions: stiff-upper-lip,…

Symbols We live in a world of symbols. Traffic lights keep us safe: we know what red or green mean. A policeman’s uniform is a more complex symbol, a flag…

Fugitive Memory Forgetting comes easier as I get older, in fact it often comes whether I like it or not. Some of you have yet to reach this challenge. But…

CROWDS I don’t like crowds. Never have. Don’t like big cities. I avoid walking in crowded town centres. London is anathema for me. Never been comfortable at a football match…

Buttonholes What do you think about buttons? Probably nothing at all, unless you’ve lost one and are searching for another to match. I’m confident you think even less about buttonholes.But…

The Orange Bike  I think it’s time to tell the story of the orange bike again. My friends have heard it before, but I haven’t taken it out of the…

How Far Is It To Bethlehem?  This post is adapted from a talk I gave eleven years ago. I'm confident it was not so exceptional that anyone remembers it, but…

Time On Our Hands How are you coping with Covid-19? Back in April and for the first three or four months of lockdown then isolation, Barbara and I enjoyed it.…