The second (Stanley) instalment of my exchange of Falklands War/1982 letters with Dominic Hilton in Argentina. — For The Critic
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged .1982, ABBA, Adam Godley, America, Argentina, Armed Forces' Day, Battle Day, BBC World Service, Ben Fogle, BFBS, birthdays, Bob Peck, Buenos Aires, coincidences, complaints, condoms, Dire Straits, Dominic Hilton, Don Williams, Falkland Islands, Falkland Islands Defence Force, Falkland Islands Radio Service, fishing, fruit, Government House, Graham Bound, horse-racing, Ian Richardson, John Simpson, Major Mike Norman, Mantovani, Marc Warren, Mike Grady, MLA Gavin Short, music, Patrick Watts MBE, PTSD, Richard Brautigan, Royal Marines, senior citizens, sheep, Sir Rex Hunt, South Georgia, Stanley, submarines, The Critic, The Falklands War, The Penguin News, the West Store, The West Wing, tourism
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The opening salvo in a projected 10-week exchange of letters on/around the Falklands War, with Dominic Hilton in the Argentina capital. — For The Critic
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged .1982, Andrew Brownlee, Argentina, Brian Summers, Buenos Aires, communications, Dominic Hilton, Falkland Islands Defence Force, Falkland Islands Government, Falkland Islands Radio Service, General Sir Mike Rose, Government House, His Excellency Nigel Phillips CBE, Major General Julian Thompson, Major Justin McPhee, Mount Pleasant Complex, penguins, PTSD, Royal Marines, SAS, Sir Rex Hunt, Stanley, The Critic, the Falklands, The Falklands War, the Malvina House Hotel, The Penguin News, whisky, Whitehall
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Notes on Colombo’s books and bookmen in the time of Covid-19. — For The Critic
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged alcohol, Aleksandar Hemon, Amazon, Ashok Ferrey, B&Q, Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, books, bookshops, Buddhism, Ceylon, Ceylon Bible Society, charity, China, Chuck Palahniuk, clothing, Colombo, Colombo Fashion Week, Colombo International Book Fair, construction, Covid-19, Dan Brown, David Duchovny, democracy, Denis Johnson, Donald Trump, Dr Sudath Samaraweera, Dutch Burgher Union, education, Emma Donoghue, Emmanuel Carrere, England, Eventbrite, Facebook, Galle Literary Festival, Harrods, health, hygiene, Iran, James Hadley Chase, Jilly Cooper, Kumar Sangakkara, LIDL, Lt General Shavendra Silva, Malaysia, Michael Chabon, Milo, money, music, Nicholas Mosley, Nixon, Northern Ireland, novels, One Galle Face, Ottawan, Panos Karnezis, rain, religion, Robert Knox, satire, schools, Shangri-La, Shehan Karunatilaka, shopping, Sinhala, snacks, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Exhibition & Conference Centre, Tamil, TASCHEN, taxes, TGI Fridays, The Big Bad Wolf, The Critic, the internet, the Sistine Chapel, Tisara Prakasakayo, TS Eliot, tsunami, VIPs, Waterstone's, weddings, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
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A lockdown letter from Colombo. — For The Critic
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged Amazon, Argentina, army, beer, children, China, Colombo, coronavirus, cricket, Dominic Hilton, drink, Facebook, food, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, health, lockdown, May Day, Mel Gibson, money, Osama bin Laden, painting, peacocks, quizzes, Sanskrit, shopping, Singapore, Sinhala, socialism, Sri Lanka, swimming, the British, The Critic, UberEats, work
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. The diamond, in sufficient heat, will burn like a piece of charcoal. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Saturday, November 17 1906 . Podcasts will soon be like porn. The first three volumes of TS Eliot’s letters have been remaindered. Confidence travels. The door is a jar. Roken is dodelijk. Humans’ rubbish is the filthiest stuff […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged apparel, books, death, dictionaries, elephants, firemen, food, football, geology, law, murder, Nelson Evening Mail, news, podcasts, pornography, publishing, satire, smoking, travel, TS Eliot, Turkish, vegetarianism, violin, war, waste management, work
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Monday, February 25, 2019
6.2.41 I am given to understand that this is the 6th day of Feb. but for the life of me I don’t know what day of the week it is. Anyhow it doesn’t make any difference here. Excuse the dirt. A.A.¹ has just spilt some tea on my pad. The journey from the forest² to these […]
Filed in Non-fictions
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Also tagged Abyssinia, Allan Arnott, biltong, Cape Point, censorship, Cyril Cochran, death, East Africa, Ethiopia, food, Gerald Fayle, Gerald Fayle Preston Smyth, Gerald Spence Smyth, infantry, Italians, Mega, Micky Williamson, Muslims, Somalis, South Africa, South Africans, the Irish, war, WWII
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Friday, November 30, 2018
Tonight, the Irish journalist Mary Kenny has a play on at the Irish Cultural Centre. Entitled Dearest Old Darling, it’s based on letters sent between the Dublin feminist, socialist, communist, Sinn Fein MP (elect, but never sitting) Constance Markievicz – née Gore-Booth – and her sister Eva. My great-great-great-aunt, Sarah Purser, portraitist, landscape artist, and […]
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged Académie Julian, air travel, An Túr Gloine, aristocracy, bathing, Brendan Behan, burglary, Communism, Constance Markievicz, Count Casimir Markievicz, Douglas Hyde, Dublin, Elizabeth Coxhead, Eva Gore-Booth, exploration, feminism, France, Georgina Gore-Booth, grandmothers, Guinness, Huguenots, Ireland, Jack Yeats, James Joyce, John Butler Yeats, John O'Grady, Kathleen Kearney, Lady Gregory, landlords, Lissadell, Mary Kenny, Maud Gonne, Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, National Gallery of Ireland, Oliver Gogarty, painting, politics, portraits, religion, Roger Casement, Rome, Royal Dublin Society, Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, Sarah Purser, Sinn Fein, Sir Henry Gore-Booth, Sligo, socialism, stained glass, the Arctic, the British, the Irish Cultural Centre, theatre, Yeats
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Dear Amorist, I recently made a joke about my pregnant wife – and found myself receiving several pointers. ‘Have lots of sex before the baby’s born,’ said one. ‘Watch loads of movies,’ said another. Couldn’t we just watch porn, and kill two birds with one stone? Yours, &c. ASH Smyth, by email
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
I NAT. TEL. JESMOND 343. Imperial Hotel, Jesmond Road, Newcastle on Tyne 15th Dec 1907 . My dear Victor, …………………..It is my good fortune once more to ask you for your congratulations! This time it is on a very fine appointment as Navigating Officer of H.M.S. “Lord Nelson”, a battleship almost completed, and which is […]
Filed in Non-fictions
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Also tagged Adrian Holt Smyth, Britain, brothers, Dublin, Dudley de Chair, Ireland, marriage, Newcastle, Royal Navy, the Thames, Victor Emmanuel Smyth, WW1
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Monday, November 10, 2014
A blog piece for Culture House on the Royal Naval mobilisation of the Rev Wilfrid Hannay Gibbins, and the parish mags of a church in West London over the course of the First World War. — For The Spectator