Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Story of 25 Eventful Years in Pictures One of the books that has been sitting in our porch waiting for the charity shops to re-open is a picture book published by Odhams Press to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V.  It contains some 400 pages of sepia photographs from the period 1910-1935.Continue reading “Through a glass darkly – 43”

On the home front Susie and I are grateful to have had our first COVID jab, with the Oxford AstroZeneca vaccine, at the beginning of February. I know it doesn’t work, apparently, in France and in Belgium, but there is no prospect of our being there in the immediate future. Friends in continental Europe areContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 42”

George Allen & Unwin After not quite five years at Pergamon Press [see TaGD – 37], in January 1972 I was invited to join George Allen and Unwin as one of their Sponsoring Editors. There was no merit in my appointment. I was approached by Allen and Unwin with a view to taking over fromContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 41”

The Mediterranean For me the words ‘The Mediterranean’ are wonderfully evocative. Heat, sand, sunshine, the smell of sun protection cream and of Gitanes; the clink of ice-cubes in pastis or in citron pressé. I’m not sure how much the images owe to Scott Fitzgerald or to Françoise Sagan. And how much to my own memories.Continue reading “Though a glass darkly – 40”

Out of my comfort zone In 1982 I travelled outside Europe for the first time; two weeks on a market research trip to Jakarta, followed by a few days in Singapore. Before I left I called at Blackwells in Oxford and bought a street map, a Falk Stadtplan, of Jakarta. The map showed a lotContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 39”

Sometimes I think that if I weren’t a Church of England vicar [retired], I’d be an anarchist. Not of the balaclava-wearing, window-smashing kind. And certainly not of the gun-toting, Trump-supporting, libertarian kind. But I can certainly believe in a society where power is devolved to the local level; where, in the absence of multinational companies,Continue reading “Through a glass darkly – 38”

At the bus stop Last week I was sitting at the bus-stop talking to Winston Churchill. I was telling him what an awful paper The Times is now, especially the Saturday magazine. He didn’t seem to know much about the magazine, but otherwise was happy to agree with me. Then this 1950s-style London bus cameContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 37”

Socialists and Anarchists This year  I was going to read James Joll’s book on The Anarchists. But I found an earlier book by him on the shelves, and thought I ought to read that first. James Joll, born in 1918, was a Wykehamist, who read history at New College, Oxford. During the Second War heContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 36”

Uniformity and diversity in church life There was a story in the papers at the end of December about a London church where attendance has grown dramatically since they switched their services back to the Book of Common Prayer, the 1662 traditional Church of England Prayer Book. Denis Lennon, my training Rector at St Thomas’s,Continue reading “Through a glass darkly – 35”

Looking forward, looking back The words sound familiar. Looking forward, looking back was an enormous hit for the Australian country singer Slim Dusty a couple of decades ago. People queue up on the internet to say that “this was Pop’s favourite record, and we played it at his funeral”. [I’m not sure that Canon JohnContinue reading “Through a Glass Darkly – 34”