My father was one of thousands of Polish soldiers interned in Switzerland during World War 2 and who stayed there after the war (choosing not to return home because Communism ruled there). Our family knows little about this decade of his life and my…
I like the beach. I am not so much a ‘bobber’ or a ‘baker’ – bobbing in the water or (sun)baking on the sand are not high on my list of fun things to do – but I like swimming and body surfing (and…
Here’s a random fact–there are 270 species of termites in Australia but only 8 species are of economic concern–ie. they’ll eat your house (says Dr Ken Walker, Senior Curator of Entomology at Museums Victoria on ABC’s Ockham’s Razor ). How do you know whether…
Who determines who I am? Me or you (with you being you or society or events or circumstances)? The rising awareness of identity politics would suggest that I say who I am. The rising conflicts in some quarters would suggest that not everyone is…
The virtual reality church segment on BBC Radio Sunday piqued my interest. While there is a pastor and there are people, there is no church building as such and the congregation meets in virtual reality or by watching it online. The pastor said that…
Writing these ‘blurbs’ is always interesting in terms of fast and slow. Sometimes the idea or incident or trigger just leaps onto the page and at other times I am in the Outback with not even a drop of an idea. It occurred to…
As part of BBC Radio’s ‘Forest 404’ – a sci-fi thriller set in the 24th Century in a world where forests have been erased from history – I listened to a talk ‘Death in the Digital Age’ by Katie Thornton – researcher, public historian,…
The interconnectedness of things today –and of life –can take my breath away. Last Sunday morning I drove down to BBC Radio Essex to give the Reflection –a 3 minute one-take, live, try-and-make-no-mistakes reading which is topical in terms of the latest news and…
I had the misfortune of working on the wrong version of an essay this week. A student had emailed me a draft for comment. I am usually pretty meticulous about naming the files but this time I simply got it wrong and forgot that…
I do not wish to be morose at this Easter time – and I don’t think I am in chocolate withdrawal – but there does seem to be a lot of death around. I noticed it at the First Aid course I attended at…
