It looks as if these latest ramblings of mine are going to be mainly concerned with words and their etymology. I know that word because one of the brightest people I know studied the subject at Cambridge (or Cantabrigia as…
Continue reading →I suppose the true definition of ‘name-dropping’ includes one having actually met the name one is letting fall and subsequently mentioning it proudly over supper. In what follows, that definition is largely accurate. I cannot be alone in not having…
Continue reading →Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration. Izaak Walton If you can’t be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped Izaak…
Continue reading →The older I become, the more I appreciate the disparate threads that have drawn together different parts of my life. I suppose it’s partly the past catching up with me. I may be wrong, but I suspect that musicians are…
Continue reading →Over the last – maybe – nine months, although until now not expressed on the page, many thoughts have popped into my head; sometimes of the armchair amateur philosophical kind, sometimes just memories from soon after the cradle onwards. It…
Continue reading →There used to be a chap in the BBC’s brain trust, Professor Joad, who said, as an opening to every answer he gave, ‘It all depends what you mean by …’ When I was writing something a few years ago,…
Continue reading →One aspect of getting on a bit and having time to think has led me, inevitably, to look back and review carefully selected areas of my life. Many good friends are involved. For example, Tony Tunstall started at the Royal…
Continue reading →To begin with – a few disclaimers; I speak as a teacher who, try as he might, has not himself always adhered to all the advice that he will give in the following pages: it is better to be honest….
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