It’s always tempting to take a look into the neighbours’ house, especially when it’s a bit bigger than yours. So it was with some enthusiasm that I joined those popping into Houghton Hall in North-West Norfolk, to see how the…
Going to Scotland has always seemed to me like going home. Not because I am Scottish – my family, extensively researched, comes from a rather boring part of the East Midlands, which is about as disappointing as you can get….
During the tenth day under a single-minded sun the thickening air conjures shapes out of nothing: dazed rabbits, uncertain insects and something unclear, beyond the trees The mountain shifts uneasily afraid of faith that comes by heat, not light, on…
Read: Heat
Tennis fanatics – among whom commentators loom large – hate to see the big names lose. If Nadal (or Federer or Djokovic) loses in the first round at Wimbledon, this is seen as a major tragedy. How can it be…
Read: Bring on the underdogs
Beyond history, when the desert swam in the homeland of martyrdom west beyond the devil’s cave there were no boundaries and when the sand came and the words were written I could see nothing: an indescribable shape and unrecognisable colours…
Read: No boundaries
What is the essential difference between gay marriage and hogging the middle lane? Hard to pin down, isn’t it? People get very angry in each case, both for and against. Making law about them did not appear in any party’s…
Sometimes I step out of the wood on to a straw-covered path: a warm wind brushes the hill Sometimes the woodland ways are too steep, and the square, unbedded stones bite into my sole Sometimes I go on and sometimes…
Read: Boneland
Hard to underestimate the excitement of a council election, with in cases up to 25% of voters rushing eagerly to the polling stations. Even more exciting, of course, when the boring old major parties get swept aside by a new…
Read: Papering over the cracks
Injecting ice into the crack of dawn, the east wind knocks twice on my eyelids, but no-one is in This short poem was commended in the Norwich Writers’ Circle open competition this year and appears in their anthology
My eye was caught by a headline in a well-known church newspaper the other day. It read: “Church urged to help save the hedgehog.” I sighed inwardly. The Church of England is capable of almost any kind of bizarre activity,…
Read: Church targets hedgehogs