About

This writer is ‘retired’ after several lifetimes of teaching in Jersey C.I. and England (and, very briefly, in Calcutta, as it was called then). He lives in a small village in Somerset with his wife and cat.

Main interests are reading and writing, art, Asia, travel, Buddhism and Tai Chi.

He has won a few prizes in England for poetry and short-stories and has started making notes for Part II of Zazou and Rebecca, his one-and-only (so far) novel.

There is plenty to write about in this blog. The only problem, in common with thousands of other bloggers, is finding the time.

So, make the time, buddy…

( No Title )

Alone in Berlin Hans Fallada, 1947 Hans Fallada is one of those accomplished, poignant and engaging authors that hardly anyone has heard of. A lack of translations cannot be given as an excuse: even mainstream bookshops occasionally have at least one of his novels on the shelves. Libraries likewise. But as a book that […]

May 1968

Next May is the 50th anniversary of ‘May ’68’. ‘May ’68’, for those not old enough to have been around at the time, appeared to be a second French Revolution, gathering momentum before our very eyes. Paris, particularly the Left Bank, was in turmoil. Students at the universities had gone on strike. Both they […]

Yoga Freak

(A story, for a change, while I am preparing my next blog…) Yoga Freak Simon’s architectural work was killing him. He ate too little, drowned in a stream of office coffee, and slept and dreamed and woke in a turmoil of incomplete projects. Unfortunately for his wife, she still shared their bed. ‘For God’s sake, can’t […]

‘Sedentary Activism’, or: The Art of Taking to the Streets From Your Chair

It is a truism that the internet has increased the ease with which we locate information and communicate with other people. It is also obvious that a great deal comes to our attention that we might otherwise never have discovered. This is particularly true when we do not simply stick rigidly to those areas that […]

Rohingya: ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ in a Buddhist country?

Occasionally, those with an interest in Buddhism make the comment that Buddhists are peaceful and peaceable, that they are the only ‘religion’ that has never started a war or engaged in violence. Unfortunately, this is a predominantly Western-idealistic view, and there are countless instances where it is plainly not true. Tibetan Buddhist activists have ambushed […]