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Tag Archives: war

Intelligence review

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

‘For centuries before the Second World War, educated British people knew far more about intelligence operations recorded in the Bible than they did about the role of intelligence at any moment in their own history.’ Nowadays, one might think, few would even know that. But that’s where Christopher Andrew – Emeritus Professor of Modern and […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Afghanistan, Allen Lane, America, Ancient Egypt, army, Bletchley Park, Cardinal Richelieu, China, Christianity, Christopher Andrew, Christopher Marlowe, CIA, Clausewitz, Elizabeth I, Francis Walsingham, history, Holland, India, Islam, Israel, Ivan the Terrible, Julius Caesar, MI5, MI6, Napoleon, non-fiction, Pearl Harbour, Russia, spies, Stalin, Sun Tzu, the Bible, the Cold War, the KGB, the Medway, The Oldie, the Spanish Armada, University of Cambridge, Vasili Mitrokhin, Venice, Waterloo, WWII, Xenophon | Comments (0)

Creation-ism

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

This weekend I will be joining a local choral society for their performance of Haydn’s The Creation – and what better way to welcome Spring now that it’s finally arrived. An avowed and much-loved masterpiece from its earliest performances – Vienna, 1798 – ‘whose appeal [I read from A Peter Brown’s DECCA sleeve-notes] was irresistible […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged A Peter Brown, Aled Jones, army, bassoons, Beethoven, Chapel Royal, choral societies, Christianity, cosmology, cricket, DECCA, German, Germans, Hampton Court, Handel, Haydn, Italians, Kent, King James, Maidstone, Milton, music, Napoleon, oratorio, Oxford University, Poetry, religion, school, sheep, singing, Spring, the Bible, the Church of England, the French, The Oldie, the Oxford Spezzati, tigers, Vienna, West Kensington, whales, worms | Comments (0)

Around the world in 60 minutes

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

On microlecturing, the RGS, and a whistlestop tour around the Jaffna peninsula. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged anthropology, Australia, Christopher Ondaatje, cinema, coral, cycling, depression, drink, exploration, Fearghal O'Nuallain, geography, Hemingway, India, Jaffna, Levison Wood, Mary-Ann Ochota, Matthieu Tordeur, microlecturing, migration, Mongolia, Nicholas Crane, photography, public speaking, Pushkar, Rajasthan, Royal Geographical Society, running, Ruper Sagar-Musgrave, Scotland, South-East Asia, Sri Lanka, the Himalayas, The Oldie, the Pacific Crest Trail, the Zambezi, Transcaucasus, travel, TV, walking | Comments (0)

A hero’s welcome

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Dunkirk – THE UNTOLD STORY!! — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged 11th Armoured Division, 51st Highland Division, 97th (Kent Yeomanry) Field Regiment, army, British Expeditionary Force, Canterbury, champagne, Channel Islands, cricket, Croix de Guerre, D-Day, Dunkirk, Elsie Adeline Cockersell, film, France, Germans, incarceration, James Kingford Carson, Kent, livery companies, love, moustaches, Nazis, Normandy, Royal Artillery, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, sea-faring, St Valery-en-Caux, The Oldie, women, Yorkshire | Comments (0)

Summoning Pearl Harbor

Thursday, December 7, 2017

A commemoration of Pearl Harbor, through Alexander Nemerov’s ekphrastic explorations. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged air travel, Aleutian Islands, Alexander Nemerov, America, art, Congress, David Zwirner Books, ekphrasis, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hawaii, history, Japan, Jimmy Roosevelt, navy, Stanford, The Oldie, USMC | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 27, 2017

. In the United Kingdom 200 out of every million persons are employed as writers or editors. — The Nelson Evening Mail, April 2 1907 . No-one has been found in a major search along the Torridge. ‘Pog mahone’ means ‘kiss my arse’, in Gaelic. Some people do not like to read instructions. In South Africa […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Adolf Hitler, Afrikaners, anatomy, death, demons, editors, employment, food, Gaelic, girlfriends, Hastings Banda, insects, Kilburn, kissing, lampposts, medicine, men, Nelson Evening Mail, painting, Peleliu, politics, Reading, rivers, Royal Navy, slavery, South Africa, suicide, the Bible, the Nile, the Pacific Ocean, the Torridge, USMC, Vincent Van Gogh, writing, WW2, youth | Comments (0)

Mortality 101 – or; Catullus at the graveside

Saturday, November 11, 2017

The Oldie runs my poem for the Armistice commemorations. — For The Oldie

Filed in Poetry, Translation | Also tagged Armistice Day, army, brothers, Catullus, death, Latin, The Oldie, Troy | Comments (0)

I ink, therefore I am

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

On the choice and acquisition of my one and only tattoo. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, Anthony McGowan, army, Asterix, buffalos, Classics, Cleopatra, Egyptology, Elizabeth Taylor, gladiators, Greek, Latin, men, mothers, opera, Oxford, Rome, Russell Crowe, Samoan, sewerage, South Africa, SPQR, tattoos, The Oldie | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 6, 2017

. The average salary of professors at Dublin University is £530. — The Nelson Evening Mail, March 14 1907 . The persecution of Christians is now worse than at any time in history. Toto’s ‘Africa’ is one of Myleene Klass’s all-time favourites. The Hillsborough disaster is still in the news. Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan military and […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Africa, betting, Ceylon, China, Christmas, Colombia, culture, Dublin, education, employment, fear, finance, football, grindstones, Hillsborough, homosexuality, jerk-jobs, Kevin Spacey, Legoland, Leonard Woolf, music, Myleene Klass, Nelson Evening Mail, newspapers, novels, persecution, politics, radio, religion, revolution, sex, Simon Bolivar, Toto, trees, Venezuela, Virginia Woolf, Windsor | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, October 16, 2017

. Only about three in every hundred amateur novel-writers find their way into print, except at their own expense. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 22 1907 . The erection of a verandah is a useful way to extend one’s living quarters. Seven American states observe Abraham Lincoln’s birthday as a public holiday. There is only one […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Abraham Lincoln, America, architecture, atheism, babies, Barack Obama, breasts, Britain, Chiang Kai-shek, China, Christianity, class, Comic Sans, Communism, crime, domestic affairs, education, Eskimos, finance, French, Germany, grammar, holidays, John le Carré, Judaism, Mormonism, Nelson Evening Mail, novels, religion, sharks, synthetic fibres, the Irish, the Soviet Union, translation, vision, writing | Comments (0)