“There was never any certainty about the last ball. Indeed, the vast weight of cricket history, accumulated in so many dusty volumes, now bore down on Sobers, to say: ‘It won’t happen.’ The story of so many matches, where so many thousands of batsmen have played out so many thousands, even millions, of overs. The… Continue reading
It’s well into May and we are still waiting for the cuckoo
So where’s the cuckoo? For the third successive year, I haven’t heard it call in the fields around where I live in rural southern England. That is after hearing it, without fail, every spring for more than 20 years. There is still the outside chance that the bird may yet arrive, but it really is… Continue reading →
How the Proms are celebrating dazzling Welsh musical talent Morfydd Owen
Update: April 24th, 2018. The 2018 BBC Proms season will include, for only the second time, a performance of a work by long-overlooked Welsh composer Morfydd Llwyn Owen (Fri 20 Jul 2018). The last piece by her was performed there in September 1917. The composer died, tragically young, shortly afterwards. The Proms piece is the short Nocturne, lasting about 15 minutes. It… Continue reading →
Exit cuckoo, pursued by climate change?
‘The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men; for thus sings he, “Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo!” O, word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!’ (When Daisies Pied and… Continue reading →
How Guernsey welcomes the world with Potato Peel Pie
The film was actually shot at locations in London, Bristol and Devon. The scene where German soldiers march through the streets of Guernsey was filmed in Bideford, in Devon. In Bristol, Princes Wharf, alongside a dockside museum, with cranes, steam railway and transit shed, was the location for a 1940s harbour – to represent Weymouth Docks. In London the cast… Continue reading →
How the Tecnica Forge walking boot delivers the perfect fit
Tecnica Forge, a walking boot that should fit you better than anything you’ve ever worn, moulded to the shape of your ankle, instep and arch, has gone on sale this spring (2018) in sports and outdoor shops equipped with the specialist equipment to fit it. Once we all wore off-the-shelf boots and shoes. If we… Continue reading →