Irongate Wharf, the exact spot where Patrick Leigh Fermor left England in the Stadthouder Willem, as he recounted in A Time of Gifts 90 years ago this month, on the ebbing afternoon of Saturday, December 9th, 1933, a young man of 19, shrugging off a hangover, with a backpack borrowed from a friend, walked under… Continue reading
Posts by Gareth Huw Davies
The Mastersingers’ Market – Nuremburg distils the Christmas spirit
The Nuremberg Christmas Market opened on December 1st 2023 and runs until 2pm on Christmas Eve. **** On a late afternoon of nipping chill, in a city square in the heart of Europe, I found the antidote to brash, glitzy, overblown, commercial Christmas. As the daylight ebbed, a cheerful glow pulsed up from the… Continue reading →
Holly and Ivy – perennial seasonal hit returns to its hometown
Illustration from 1958 edition of The Story of Holly and Ivy – Adrienne Adams A new display about Aylesbury and a famous Christmas story – at Discover Bucks Museum in the Buckinghamshire town. The Story of Holly and Ivy, by Rumer Godden, is set in an English market town full of seasonal atmosphere. This warmhearted Christmas fantasy… Continue reading →
On the trail of Dr Who – an ‘adventure in time and space’ around South Wales
The first episode of Doctor Who was broadcast on 23 November 1963. Radio Times announced “a new Saturday-afternoon television series of adventures in time and space”. Three of the original features are still with us – the ominous theme tune by Ron Grainer, arranged by Delia Derbyshire in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The Tardis, a 1960s police box…. Continue reading →
Global warming – a 1989 view. Do we get it yet?
In June 1989 I wrote an article published in the Radio Times, entitled “Warming to the Problem”. It was based on an interview with the producers of a BBC2 documentary, one of the earliest (it was possibly even the first) on what was then referred to as the greenhouse effect. The introduction read: Our planet faces… Continue reading →
Looking at Stonehenge road scheme with future generations in mind
In July (2023) the UK government gave its consent to a £1.7 bn scheme to dual the A303 across the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS), with twin-bore tunnels, their portals well within the boundaries of the UNESCO-designated site. * * * * In 2020 a committee in Wales published detailed proposals for addressing traffic congestion, as an… Continue reading →