(A ‘Close Encounter’ of the Phantom Kind…) Her Majesty’s Official Birthday – 12th June I have visited and been in awe at the wonders of Egypt and the River Nile; watched from the tip of the Empire State Building in New York as ‘Dinky-toy’ yellow-cabs crawled ant-like along the streets far below; viewed the streets…
I never knew my paternal Grandmother EDNA MURIEL ANNE SPARKES’ (Nee French), Margret Anne (nee Cox) as she died giving birth to her fifth child at age 36 in her cottage home at ‘Blue Row’, Swerford, Oxon, in 1911 when my father, Nelson (her eldest child) was 8 and his sisters, Edna (5) and Margery…
It was January, just two weeks after Christmas. Father and Mother Christmas had gone away on a short holiday to Lapland to have a rest after the really busy time they had had at Christmas – delivering toys to all the children in the world. Father Christmas’s elves were also taking a break after all…
The white mist from the morning DDT spray spread under the khaki canvass of our ex-army bivy tent and had us spluttering awake. I opened a flap to see the tractor disappearing through the wood towards the barns. The mist hovered, two feet deep, across the site, lit up by the sun rising over the…
February 2016 Sri Lanka in winter seemed like the perfect holiday destination and more than lived up to expectation. Beforehand, we knew very little about Sri Lanka but thought it would be a good introduction to Asia and maybe a warm-up to its nearby giant neighbour India, which I’ve heard can be a huge culture…
I have crossed many geographic borders and a few are memorable. Entering Hong Kong when it was a British Colony took two hours; entering China from Hong Kong took two minutes! Crossing from Poland into Slovakia was always pleasant. The border point I used was in the village of Bukowina Tatranska, about two hours from…
It was dusk. The Caribbean full moon silvered an eerie pathway across the water. In a slender dory hitched to a pole 200 yards from the caye two boys sat fishing. The Carib boy, Ceesto, was apprehensive. “Let’s go. Fish no’ bite” “Not yet” his fair-haired companion said. “Wha’ happen, Ceesto, you ‘fraid a duppy?”…
‘There’s no way out of this… so this is how it ends,’ John thought as he tossed around in the six metre high waves. He had sold his business, bought a new boat and looked forward to a retirement of sailing and sea fishing. In early December, what started as a day fishing with his…
“Mummy, Santa will come tomorrow won’t he. Won’t he Mummy?” “Of course he will, my little treasure. When you wake up in the morning he will have been, especially for you. Now off we go to bed. Say night, night to Daddy.” “Night, Daddy,” “Night, night, sleep tight, Jamie,” said Ben. Megan sat next…
This is BBC Radio 4. Now it’s time for the latest in our series “What’s the point of ..?” with Quentin Letts. Over to you, Quentin. Quentin: Only 13 more days until Christmas and I expect a lot of you have already got your tree home, decorated it – and you may even have managed…