2 February 2023 The Roar of Exhausts Toad relieved. By Chin Chin Mr Toad would have been much relieved. Forget global warming and the possibility of nuclear war. In his world a much more sinister threat has been lurking on the horizon. As the world moves to electric vehicles, would we cease to hear the… Continue reading The Roar of Exhausts
Article Category: Features
A Reunion
17 November 2022 A Reunion 50 years on. By Lynda Goetz A few weeks ago, I went to a school reunion. This may not sound like anything out of the ordinary. For all I know, readers may attend such events on a regular basis, although I suspect not. You, like many others, may have thankfully… Continue reading A Reunion
Traffic Meetings
17 November 2022 Traffic Meetings Rabelaisian occasions. By Chin Chin Just occasionally you miss out on something really worthwhile; you turn down tickets to a play which the critics then say is the performance of a lifetime or you refuse a dinner invitation where the food turns out to have been cooked by Gordon Ramsay.… Continue reading Traffic Meetings
The Earwiggle
10 November 2022 The Earwiggle Electric cars and other hazards. By Chin Chin It really was a very nasty moment. I was driving along the Euston Road when I commented to my wife that with all the electric vehicles on the road it was much harder to hear traffic than it used to be. “Ah”,… Continue reading The Earwiggle
Taking the Ferry
3 November 2022 Taking the Ferry Holidays in France By Robert Kilconner Large open top touring cars, hotel to hotel across Europe, first class meal after first class meal, it was the Brideshead way of taking a holiday. Standards have slipped since then or more accurately holidaymakers have slipped down a class or two, but… Continue reading Taking the Ferry
France
20 October 2022 France A linguistic feat. By Chin Chin The thing that strikes you about French towns is that the distribution of shops is quite different to what we are used to in England. Away go the hardware shops, the estate agents and the charity shops and in come lots of shoe shops, chemists… Continue reading France
Guggenheim
13 October 2022 Guggenheim A museum? By Chin Chin (Robert Kilconner is on holiday.) “A call for you, Señor.” My first thought was not to take it. After all, I was on holiday. Probably just one of the editors of the Shaw Sheet offering me some ludicrous post as part of a reorganisation. Motoring correspondent,… Continue reading Guggenheim
Victorian Terseness
15 September 2022 Victorian Terseness Let’s have it back. By Robert Kilconner Every now and again it is good thing to clear out old family files and while I was doing that this week I came across a letter addressed to my great-grandfather, a Lt Col in the Royal Artillery. It was in pencil and… Continue reading Victorian Terseness
Go Boil Your Keys
8 September 2022 Go Boil Your Keys Listening in. By Robert Kilconner Messages arrive in all sorts of different ways. If you were Moses, for example, they arrived on tablets of stone; if Elijah, in a still small voice of calm. By the time we get to St Paul, it had become slightly less theatrical… Continue reading Go Boil Your Keys
Strange Goings On
1 September 2022 Strange Goings On A Chiltern Mystery by Don Urquhart Terrifying dystopia is a successful movie genre and one of my favourites. Recent Oscar winner Get Out was one of the best in my view. It begins with a happy couple in a car on the way to a weekend with her family. … Continue reading Strange Goings On
Little Lies
28 July 2022 Little Lies And smooth corners. By Robert Kilconner Christopher Luxon is the leader of the opposition in New Zealand and hoping to replace Jacinda Adern as prime minister following next year’s general election. That is no easy task bearing in mind Adern’s obvious sincerity and decency. No doubt he hopes to project… Continue reading Little Lies
No Man Is An Island
16 June 2022 No Man Is An Island The Inner Hebrides by J.R. Thomas Firstly, in the spirit of the age, let us make clear that when we say that men are not islands, we naturally include women, persons of dual gender, of none, and of variable and fluctuating choices. But what we are setting… Continue reading No Man Is An Island
Elizabeth II
16 June 2022 Elizabeth II Prankster. By Robert Kilconner The Queen has had her fair share of compliments in this her Jubilee year but the assertion that she is “a better prankster than Minnie” is one of the odder ones. It is from the Beano of course, where the Jubilee issue included a six page… Continue reading Elizabeth II
