George Sand has always been a very romantic figure in my imagination. Ever since I was at my boarding school in Ealing, when Mother Mary Dominic swore me to secrecy not to let the other nuns know that I knew, she divulged that Chopin’s lover, that very wicked woman, had actually been a pupil at […]Read Post ›
I like being a tourist and doing touristy things. I don’t go as far as wearing a kissmequick hat, but I like to see the sights and take the photos. Most of all I like quirky forms of transport. This holiday has been no exception. Now that we’ve settled in to our charming hotel, we […]Read Post ›
This is my grandfather as I never knew him. He was born in 1878 and died during the Second World War, a captive in Siberia. His story is a very interesting one, but one which I shall leave for another day. Today I was thinking about him as I was wrapping parcels to send […]Read Post ›
For JR Marguerite was the Diana to my Anne of Green Gables – many were the glasses of “raspberry cordial” that we shared, many potatoes peeled and eaten, many world problems discussed and solved, many evenings spent together, many days out, and in; generally, someone I relied on to be there when I needed her […]Read Post ›
For AAK My father passed his driving test when he was about 45 and immediately bought a car. Of course. An Austin A40: YMD 457 I think was the registration. Then he bought an Austin 1100 and we went to Poland in it. I have written bits about that journey. Six years later I was […]Read Post ›
for HJ nee P For years I used to dream about this desk. It belonged to my father’s doctor, and I used to love watching the top roll up and down, revealing and hiding all his papers, at will. This feeling of immense latent power came back to me some months ago when we were […]Read Post ›
