Sounds of 2019

It's that time of year when lists of favourite albums of the year, or 'Sounds of 2019' are compiled. This year, I've decided to put together two lists. The first is my 'Sounds of 2019' - albums released this year which I've been introduced to through tracks played on UK radio. A huge thanks to …

Sourdough September – the Power of Three!

I've written before (click here - Feb. 2019) about my love of 'real bread' and catching the sourdough baking bug. It signposts the recipes I trust most, as well as plenty of other useful links. This month has been designated 'Sourdough September' by the 'Real Bread Campaign', so before the month is through, I wanted …

Underland – a deep time journey

Our relationship with time, and our planet are as much the theme for Robert Macfarlane's latest book, "Underland" (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Books, 2019), as is the more literal exploration of underground spaces in a variety of places around the globe. Reading the book could not have come at a more opportune moment for me. I'm finding …

What exactly is PR?

There was a really valuable post recently on the PR Place website ("Public relations for absolute beginners"), where Richard Bailey responded to a challenge about the need for the industry to get better at explaining what it actually is all about - and appealing to a wider cross-section of people who have yet to consider …

DJ culture

Chris is a DJ.  God, Annie is a superstar DJ.  Both are on the radio.  James on the other hand is a podcast presenter (although he is on the radio too).  Krishnan is a podcast presenter (and on the telly). Whatever the difference is between radio DJs and podcast presenters, podcasts provide an excellent long-form …

Hampshire Day – and the importance of ‘place’

I've been enthusiastically marking the first 'Hampshire Day' - established as the 15th July, which is also the feast day of St. Swithun, the patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. The day is meant to celebrate the diverse culture, tradition and history of communities across what is often referred to as 'the first shire'. It means …

Perfidious Albion

I've just emerged from another Sunday morning appointment with the politicians on the TV, accompanied by my only real constant each week, a plate of the kippers that do get my vote (and maintain consistently his satisfaction levels). This week, we really are in the thick of it with the Tory leadership contest, the revelations …

The Hows and Whys of the Hampshire heaths

With the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Kingsley, I posted recently about his contribution to a sense of 'place' in this corner of North-East Hampshire where I live, which referred to one of his works ("Prose Idylls, New and Old"), and how it described the 'rough commons' terrain of the area. Since that post, …

Necropolis Railway took me to a dramatic ultimate destination!

A curious railway company, running 'funeral trains' between its own terminus just off London Waterloo, and Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey provides the backdrop to a fantastically atmospheric detective story ["The Necropolis Railway", Andrew Martin (2005), London, Faber & Faber]. Brookwood was the largest cemetery in the world when it opened, and remains the largest in …

Kingsley – making it quite a place

I don’t pretend to be a serious historian, but I do take an interest in the identity of my local area.  I was born in Farnham, on the Surrey/Hampshire border, and spent the entire 18 years of childhood growing up in Yateley, in Hampshire – the town to which I returned some four years ago …