Author Archives: John

Every picture tells its story

1. Brushes With Reality

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Ukraine:

Ukraine:The comparisons we most readily might make are those relating to Europe in the 1930s when Dictators in Continental Europe and in Imperial Japan literally made War and decided Peace for much of a decade and a half, untrammelled by … Continue reading

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Dr Roger Mettam – a personal reminiscence.

Roger and I met on 22nd November 1977. We met in the pub after the Tudor Seminar. After that first meeting, we saw more and more of one another. The summer of 1978 he took me to Aldeburgh and shortly … Continue reading

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I’ve been to a marvellous Party

Inspired by Noel coward and with apologies to the Master: We’re re-reading OvidBecause of the CovidIt’s dreadfully dull.And Rishi next doorIs a terrible borea socially distanced oik.Everyone’s out in the gardens,With pizzas and bottles of wineAfter several carafesThe No 10 … Continue reading

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Easter 2021
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The great feast has come and gone, and I’ve survived. I meant to write something before, but I was either too busy or too tried or maybe both. This year Easter has been very different for me.  It has been … Continue reading

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A Benson Carol – the story of a Christmas yet to come….

A “Charlie, Gracie have you got your coats on?” Kate could hear her children’s excited stomping – she’d heard them all morning. It had been Robbie’s idea to take the kids out to do the Bensington Society Christmas Quiz. Improvisations … Continue reading

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Lent, a personal reflection

Lent , a personal Reflection Lents like Christmases come ever faster and the fast they impose is ever harder. As I’ve gotten older I find I often eat little and often and eschew the larger meals of my adolescence onwards. … Continue reading

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The Credo of Mary I (Tudor)

The Credo of Mary I (Tudor) History remembers Mary I as “Bloody Mary”; “the Spanish Tudor”; the embodiment of everything extreme. Unlike Elizabeth I whose iconic portraiture presents an elaborately confected enigma the picture history paints of Mary I from … Continue reading

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Je Suis Catholique
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Je Suis Catholique: What can I say but this? There can hardly be a more appropriate moment for the awful prayers from the Requiem Mass: Dies irae, dies illa             ( This day of wrath, … Continue reading

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Beyond Nice: a personal reflection upon these troubled times
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Nice & Beyond Nice was in party mood enjoying the end of Bastille Day in a blaze of fireworks. Like the 4th of July – festivals hardly come in more secular garb than Bastille Day with its echoes of Liberté, … Continue reading

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