Category: Essays

As a child, the Natural History Museum was an important part of my life. There I saw what before only books had held: living animals. No, I know the difference between a zoo and a

In 1964, I read that Bob Hayes ran, from a flying start, the final 100 yards of the Men’s 4 X110 Olympic Relay in 7.8 seconds.  In 1966, I knew the names and LP releases

At the age of fourteen I was exposed to Mr Polly.  Fourteen is an impressionable age; it is also one of intense reactions.  The History of Mr Polly is a novel by HG Wells. With

The globe irritated me.  I could not kick it because it was stationed in a protective bracket and, although it was a ball like the others, didn’t look right, slanted at its axial angle. Even

I grew up with kings and queens: they were in my story books.  I grew up with the government: they were in my parents’ conversations.  I grew up with the church: they were in white

Once upon a time I lived in a country where there was light pollution – in its cities at least – but matters in South Africa have recently deteriorated to such an extent that now

More words rhyme with “pool” than “floc”. Leading the field are cool, fool and tool, which deal quite adequately with the opposition posed by rock, stock and cock. But when you saw FLOC, did your

A lengthy right leg angles elegantly from wispy pillows of bubbly foam. A razor, lightly-held, slaloms its way down a ski slope of svelte shape, the snowcream of shaving foam parting easily under its touch.

There is much in my life over which I have little control.  At the moment it is the message: “It’s almost the mid of the week…” which opens my Tuesday phone; on Thursday: “It’s nearly

Kaliningrad is not easy to find.  Seeing “-grad” and thinking Russia, you spin the globe in its direction.  It stretches east and west…somewhere in that vast domain lies Kaliningrad.  But before you get lost somewhere