Ten years on from the cameo part an athlete few of us have heard of, Augusto Ramos Soares, in the London Olympics of 2012. He will not have had the equivalent of £4 million spent on him – that’s the estimated sum you need to invest in an athlete to make him or her competitive enough… Continue reading
Browsing Category Everything else
A rural ride to the Rothschilds’ cottage palace
So where is this? ‘Half-timbered house originating from 1606, transformed by the Rothschilds in the late 19th century, containing superb collections.’ And this? ‘.. a French Renaissance château, inspired by those in the Loire valley, built by a Rothschild in the 19th century, and filled with royal treasures and many objects with an exceptional story… Continue reading
How BeaconLit was built – creating a book festival in an English village
BeaconLit 2022 – this coming Saturday, 16 July, Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire. The literary festival was launched in 2013. 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 In this year’s event former Chief Crown Prosecutor Nazir Afzal will be… Continue reading
Just as we revere old soldiers, let us care about generations yet to come
‘As we venture into an uncertain century, we should be as concerned about the future of our children and grandchildren, as we are respectful of the past of our dead grandfathers.’ ——— We revere the soldiers who died in the First World War. Many villages display the metal silhouette or outline of a soldier with… Continue reading
Clever birds clean up a town, and other avian skills
Biologists have long known the corvid family – it includes crows, ravens, rooks, magpies and jackdaws – to be among the smartest of all birds. Corvids, and other birds, have been seen to solve problems by insight and learn by example, as human children do. On the Pacific island of New Caledonia, crows have demonstrated… Continue reading
Writing Aylesbury out of a children’s classic: how important are real places in literature?
When The Story of Holly and Ivy was first published, it was set in the Buckinghamshire market town of Aylesbury. In later editions the location was switched to somewhere called Appleton. (There is a village of Appleton in Oxfordshire, but the descriptions in the book don’t fit it.) Has the book lost something as a result? “And where does your grandmother… Continue reading