Back to Bretton for the first time in nine years. Arresting. Sculpture can be startling, stimulating, enchanting. It can turn you into stone.
Backstopped in Bretton
Category: Formative influences
Finders Keepers
One of the most perplexing aspects of Hoghton Tower in Lancashire is the question of where is the building from which it takes its name? The original tower has been missing for 376 years. There were theories as to where it was, but no one was sure until now.
I.O.U.O.U.
What I owe the Open University Fetishism was not a personal priority upon applying to the Open University, but it proved too much of a temptation subsequently, when it was the title of an optional lecture at one of the residential summer schools. Despite being on the final half day of our week-long stay that … Continue reading I.O.U.O.U.
Steaming into the subconscious
How an excursion on a veteran steamship and the making of a miniature replica fuelled a perplexing retro-adventure.
PUSHED
When we remember the fallen we should never forget why they fell Remembrance Day is for all who died in the conflicts of the wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This post is predominantly about the Great War that stopped one hundred years ago today. (Technically the war did not ‘end’ then as an … Continue reading PUSHED
Words, pictures and surgical scars
The creative symbiosis of writing a novel without a name The idea to attempt to compose an untitled novel found momentum at The Word event at Astley Hall in Chorley, Lancashire in September 2013. Among the speakers were book designers Ned Hoste and Ed Christiano who delivered an informative session on the crafting of book … Continue reading Words, pictures and surgical scars
Spoiler alert: contains glider components
A romantic reunion at Caernarfon Airworld It was my first time. Just me and she. I was five days shy of my seventeenth birthday and it only lasted three minutes but she lifted me a thousand feet high then let me down very gently. Last week we met again. In 1973 she was to be … Continue reading Spoiler alert: contains glider components
Do you want feathers with that?
We are the progeny of Mother Nature and the playmates of the sprites and demons that hide in what we now call DNA.
Five rebuff literary snobbery together
A parody Dick’s mobility scooter raced at full power. Anne caught him up because her scooter was newer and had been more recently charged. “Where are you going?” she yelled. “To the cliff top,” said Dick. “Why the hurry?” protested Anne. “George is in a funny mood,” said Dick. “I’m worried she’s going to do … Continue reading Five rebuff literary snobbery together
Betty Thatcher
An appreciation A few rock aficionados will be familiar with the sixties / seventies / eighties group Renaissance. Fewer still will be au fait with their reclusive, self-effacing, lyricist Betty Thatcher. The band, perhaps best known for their 1977 single Northern Lights, cited folk, classical, and jazz influences, on their musical compositions. For the uninitiated, … Continue reading Betty Thatcher
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