Several things have transformed my way of working during my career as a journalist. The first, naturally, was a computer. Then came the Internet. Then the mobile phone, developing into the smartphone, with its multiplicity of uses. So it is now also my camera, my tape recorder, my computer and my information provider. After that… Continue reading
Swansea catches tide to lead the world in every day clean lagoon energy
I am immensely proud of my hometown, Swansea. If all goes well, by the end of 2018 a six-mile long wall will loop out from the seafront, like an oddly inflated balloon, to define the world’s first energy-generating tidal lagoon. Turbines at the outer edge of the lagoon will capture the energy from the tide… Continue reading →
Capital idea to put nature and the environment in heart of UK economy
This is how to put a price on nature. If landowners and developers want to build houses in beautiful, open countryside, they must compensate for the loss of habitat and wildlife by providing a piece of land of equal or greater size nearby, then pay to manage and enhance it so it becomes as ecologically… Continue reading →
King willow still leads the batting in 21st Century cricket
The summer’s test cricket programme is underway, and the purest form of the game, with the reassuring sponsorship of Waitrose, reasserts itself against those many upstart versions. But whether they play test cricket or T20, cricketers turn to essential and traditional tools, the most important of which is the bat. Older readers will recall the… Continue reading →
Wild Highlands life in a year of changing weather
A Bird’s Eye View of a Highland Year, by John Lister-Kaye. Canon Gate, £14.99 hardback, £12.99 e-book. Any preconceptions I might have had that this would be the standard “Year in the life of” nature book were summarily dispelled on page 3 of the preface. John Lister-Kaye has run the study centre at Aigas in the… Continue reading →
Linz’s bold opera vision pays off in new Musiktheater am Volksgarten
Over many visits to European cities, I’ve concluded that two things set them apart from similarly-sized places in Britain. One is public transport. The other is a commitment to culture, and in particular music. We hold our own in fine historic buildings, and archeological remains. It’s when we look at the creations of planners and… Continue reading →