I’m as guilty as anyone, if I write to someone, it’s usually by email and if they say they don’t have a PC, I will still drop them a note which I’ve typed and printed, so what has happened to something which until a few years ago was not only regular, but the done thing.
I [...]

Yesterday was a big day for me, the day I’d arranged the Chimney Sweep to clean our two Pots.
Nothing to get excited about? Yes, it’s a day when memories of the past are rife. As a little boy I can remember waiting by the gate for him to arrive, the entrance of the usually thin [...]

There is much to say about modern living with the technology we have and the ability to travel to almost any part of the world we choose, but one thing which is sadly lacking nowadays is simple good manners and behaviour.
Being a youngster during the 1950’s, we were taught to behave and be courteous to [...]

No, not the song, but a look back at how things were in what some of us call ‘the good old days’.
Was there a time when you could sit on a bus or train and not hear the unwanted musical tones or ‘Oh no, it’s the wife’ blaring out from a Mobile Phone owned by [...]

I remember my Father telling me stories about his exploits in the Western Desert during WW2.
Every morning, or after every Battle, they would do a role call. The names would be called out to a loud “Here”. But all too often the name was called and no reply was heard.The ‘rule’ seemed to be that [...]

A personal tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary
There are many things in youth which shape your life to come, the way you think and the way you act.
On the day of the Queen Elizabeth 11’s Coronation I was just turned 5 years old and as adventrous as any other kid.
It was still the days of Ripping [...]

It was either 1979 or 1980, I’m unsure, but it was a time of my life when I was a single man, foot loose and fancy free after the breakdown of my first marriage.
I met a young lady from Tunbridge Wells and after a few ‘dates’ in that area I asked her if she’d like [...]

The Charts
Georgie Fame ‘The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde’
Love Affair ‘Everlasting Love’
Manfred Mann ‘The Mighty Quinn’
Esther & Abi Ofarim ‘Cinderella Rockefella’
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich ‘Legend Of Xanadu’
Beatles ”Lady Madonna’
Cliff Richard ‘Congratulations’
Louis Armstrong ‘What A Wonderful World / Cabaret’
Gary Puckett ‘Young Girl’ 22/5/1968
Rolling [...]

The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Cream, Jethro Tull, The Yardbirds and Ten Years After. These are just some of the rock superstars that, in the early 60s, passed through the doors of The Railway Hotel, West Hampstead in North West London and upstairs to a fairly inconspicuous function room that was “Klooks Kleek”. [...]

In 1960 I was 12 years old and one year into senior School. In 1970, I was 22 years old and getting married.
The years between changed our outlooks and culture perhaps more than any other decade in history.
The 1950’s had seen a fairly set-in view of life. The Country was still getting over a World [...]