Those of you who are old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis – those of you who were old enough to more or less understand what was happening in the world at that time and what the implications of a global nuclear war might be – invariably have told me how frightened you felt. […]

Read more "Further on"

I am the son of an English and Welsh father and of a Salvadorian mother. I was born in El Salvador by chance because had I been conceived a month or so later I would have come to the world in Colombia. I have lived in seven different countries in my life. All these countries […]

Read more "My own little manifesto"

Far be it from me to suggest judicial amputation of their right hand, but taggers – that useless lot of cockroaches – when caught in the act should be beaten repeatedly on the soles of their feet with a cane until they cry and have their faces stained purple with indelible ink. What they get […]

Read more "On taggers"

I was never going to be a scientist – being naturally inclined towards the arts, languages, the humanities (History being my favorite) – and Mathematics gave me, and my various teachers throughout my school years, many headaches. At Tonbridge, as a result of our Common Entrance Exam that our school and others of its kind […]

Read more "Numbers and silence"

I ought to have gone through it all in five years but in actual fact I was there for six. Those who are well disposed towards me and are generous of spirit will allow me to slot myself in to this story without further remark…. Others might want to be more brutal. And why shouldn’t […]

Read more "Belas Artes"

This happened during “The Coventry Visit” in our Lower VIth, November of 1988 I think.  We had been given an hour or so of free time and a group of us, wandering around the Brutalist pedestrian shopping precinct in the centre of town, rushed into a pub for a sneaky pint and to smoke lots […]

Read more "On pretentions"

It was September of our Novi year and we had only just begun our time at Tonbridge. We might only have been there a few days when this happened. I seem to recall I was walking past the chapel, crunching along the drive down towards the Quad, in a large group of other people, and […]

Read more "On ignorance"

My dad’s youngest brother by eleven years was working in NY in the early 80’s. We were living in Lisbon at that time and I seem to remember my dad being sent to NY on some business related affair for about five days. My uncle Guy, hot blooded and in his mid twenties, had been […]

Read more "Nueva Yol"

It was the summer of 1994 and Philippe had secured for us both, via one of his uncles who worked in marketing and promo, a cushy job distributing lighters and T shirts and other bits of merchandizing amongst client bars all over the Algarve of a select number of beer and cider brands. The job […]

Read more "Balance"

I wrote about this a few months ago, writing up a brief post on Facebook, and I have been wanting to recycle it and expand on it, but try as I might I cannot seem to find my original text so I’ll try to rehash what it was about as best I can. Mr Pendered […]

Read more "Philip"