The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1891, but the publication of twelve short stories, in 1892, brought the detective and Dr Watson to the masses. In a VisitEngland survey, 43% of respondents said they were interested in visiting locations associated with the writer. And, as VisitEngland points out, it all… Continue reading
King Arthur? His last battle was probably quite near you
Ah, King Arthur. I’m sure he was here. Somewhere. I’m standing high above Southern England on the west end of the Marlborough Downs at dusk searching for a Dark Ages super hero. Everyday life continues far below me, in the evening deluge of traffic up and down the M4. In the distance a late… Continue reading →
How two men from a small town in Poland devised cornerstones of international law
Book review. East West Street, by Philippe Sands This is the best book I read in 2018. You might initially mistake it for a wartime thriller, with a Shakespearean twist. A mysterious woman from Norfolk travels to Vienna in the summer of 1939 to pick up a one year old child and deposit her in… Continue reading →
Which football club tops the green league?
Feb 8th 2019 Arsenal FC became the first UK football club (late 2018) to install a battery storage system, which will store enough electricity to power the club’s 60,000-seater stadium for a 90-minute match. (This could potentially include renewable energy, such as solar and wind power.) The system enables the Arsenal to cut electricity bills… Continue reading →
Early risers walk easy on Turkey’s newest long distance path
Long-distance paths. Now aren’t they a particularly British thing? Not really. France has a most intricate spiders web of ways, the Chemins de Grandes Randonnées, threading throughout the countryside, marked with regular flashes of colour painted onto rocks, on buildings, posts, or anything that stays still. Spain draws the various converging arms of the St… Continue reading →
Shrewsbury, birthplace of Charles Darwin – handsome border outpost
February 2019. This is an update of a piece I wrote in 2010. Charles Darwin, Shrewsbury’s most famous son, was born in 1809 in this handsome border outpost within an almost circular loop of the River Severn. I took the train to one “England’s finest Tudor towns” and one of England’s most appealing day trip and… Continue reading →