Like a lot of little boys growing up I was fairly obsessed by cars but my interest has waned considerably now that I am a little man. Not totally, but it has certainly dwindled as my priorities have shifted. Walking to school each morning, I would pass two parked cars which completely captured my heart….
Two officials letters arrive this week. One is a first but the other is all too familiar and depressing. The former being a summons for Jury Service duty, at the Old Bailey no less. Completing the summons (online) I felt a sense of civic duty, upstanding tax paying member (although not this year) of the…
To Oxford this week, the city of spires and steeples, quadrangles and gowns, bicycles and Dons. The oldest university town in the English speaking world, founded in 1069. The university where 28 UK Prime Ministers cut their teeth and 72 Nobel prize winners learnt their onions. A city of world renown academia and a perfect…
Sometimes the stars align. Certainly this week, circumstances conspired for us Hollands. Harry’s short film completed and it appears, very successfully. Tom’s birthday. Being allowed to fly and visit Scotland. The British weather finally breaking and providing some much needed sunshine. Gleneagles is a rather special place anyway. Voted the best hotel in the UK,…
Having completed the retakes on the audio version of Eclipsed – and based on this, now revising the print edition for stray typos and making some edits also, I am adding a few further anecdotes which are appropriate and in-keeping with the story. This is a good example… I have since returned to New…
So we emerge from lockdown and I expect with mixed emotions depending on our circumstances and outlook. Good riddance for many people but for not for all. For some people, it has been a truly wonderful experience. So convenient for those of us relieved of some burdensome duties like visiting our elderly relatives. And let’s…
Obviously people do write about themselves and this needn’t be self-indulgent although it frequently is. We are familiar with the autobiography. Thick books with large print that fill the book shops ahead of Christmas – commonly with titles like ‘My Life’ or ‘My Struggle’ and written by a person in the midst of their ‘15…
A man can be aged by many parameters… His amount of hair and how much of it is grey. The size of his eyebrows. His girth/paunch. His politics? Eye sight, the sound he makes when bending down… There are other more oblique indicators too, like birds for example. If he used the term ‘birds’ to…
There are any number of new professions that we might be dubious of or at least wary of their exponents. I would say anyone who works in the wellness industry? Doctors and nurses take care of our health and have a long track record of success. And yet somehow a whole raft of new health…
With the explosion of streaming providers clamouring for our attention, it is all too easy to waste endless evenings on sub-standard films. How many of us have shuffled off to bed ruing another precious evening wasted? So when a recommendation comes along I tend to listen and so it was with The Mauritanian. I tend…









