Could the purposed Expressway be the next big road battle in the UK? And is it winnable? Until last month (June 2019), few opponents would have held out much hope of resisting the combined forces of the Highways Agency, which first advanced the £1.5 bn project, and the Westminster government, which almost without fail wins… Continue reading
BeaconLit, a literary festival in Buckinghamshire, was launched in 2013. This year (July 13, 2019) is the seventh festival. People keep coming back, to be inspired, informed and to enjoy the beautiful mystery of what happens when you turn a page (in books both physical and virtual). http://www.beaconlit.co.uk Authors and moderators this summer include Quentin Bates, a… Continue reading
As final preparations proceed for the 2019 music, books and ideas festival season, I’m republishing an account I wrote earlier on one of the most international, cheerful and animated jamborees that break out in random, rural corners of Britain, regardless of the weather, throughout the summer. 50 years on, Woodstock cannot be matched. But WOMAD, with or without the mud,… Continue reading
There’s the hint of political change in the air. I don’t mean a resolution of the Brexit agony, or the result of the Tory Party leadership election. Although there is a link. It’s hard to believe that the current chaotic system that led to an enormously divisive referendum, and the opportunity for a tiny number… Continue reading
The holiday express: through trains are running from Paddington to Tenby and West Wales this summer (2019), continuing a link which began in the days of Queen Victoria. “If there be any one train more than another, the sight of which stirs the patriotic pride of an enthusiastic Great Westernite, it is the Tenby express leaving Paddington… Continue reading
Rainham Marshes is one of my favourite wild places in the UK. I like it because of it is both wonderful and incongruous, hemmed in by the M25, clearly visible rising over the Queen Elizabeth II bridge over the Thames, by the A13 and the high-speed Eurostar line from London to the Channel Tunnel. And… Continue reading