#52ancestors (Wk2): Favourite Photo – Ellen Eliza Sawyer (or ‘Nana Coombes’)

Casting a spell for many a year, this photo of my great-grandmother Ellen Eliza Sawyer [b. 30 March, 1898 (Dogmersfield, Hants) – d. 1 March, 1953 (Guildford, Surrey)] has entranced three generations of my family – her son (my grandfather, Frank); her grand-daughter (my Mum, Mary) and yours truly. 'That' photo of Ellen Eliza, As …

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Going Back

Family history research has become a bit of an addiction over the years, taking hold with varying intensities since I was a teenager. In recent years, that interest has become a bit of a comfort blanket, taking up ever increasing amounts of my time, with more of a passion for the human stories, and the …

Sounds of 2022

Selecting my favourite tunes of 2022 has not come so easy this year, but listening back to releases and discoveries from during the past twelve months is always a useful process in itself. Updating a playlist regularly called 'Now Playing: in my Embassy Ballroom' keeps me on top of things to an extent. That names …

Celebrating Janice Long

Yesterday (13th January, 2022) was the funeral and celebration of the life of Janice Long. The news of her death on Christmas Day as 2021 came to a close, hit me like a kick in the gut. I was simply devastated, and my heart went out to her family – husband Paul, children Blue and …

Sounds of 2021

With more time to spend listening this year, I have made twenty selections for my 'Sounds of 2021' playlist. 'Unwrapping' my musical tastes thanks to a music algorithm is not really my way. Last year I was told that the genre that best typified me was 'Seattle Indie'? This year, I'm told that 'Chamber Psyche' …

“Sorrow and Bliss” by Meg Mason – but especially bliss!

After a run of pretty heavy going yet still inspiring non-fiction reads, I was determined to plump for a novel that would be easier on the eye for the next book I was to open for the late summer of 2021. I first heard Meg Mason (2021), "Sorrow and Bliss", London: Weidenfield and Nicolson enthusiastically …

To hope or to hide? Rutger Bregman: “Humankind – A Hopeful History”

Right back at the beginning of the pandemic, one of my neighbours died. Wendy lived directly opposite me, and our lives had been intertwined just so since 1973 when I was just a toddler. She was born in 1944, so she had been a part of my Mum’s life for much longer. When I moved …

“The Foghorn’s Lament: The Disappearing Music of the Coast”: Jennifer Lucy Allan

There are some far flung corners of mind which can only be summoned by sound (just as with smell, texture, even colours) - some corners more distant than others. There is one vague, definitely greyed-out location, where I’m on some kind of quayside location. My grandad used to drive HGV lorries for a stint when …

Sounds of 2020

It has been tough to pick twelve tracks which represent my favourite 'Sounds of 2020', but these are my best attempt to do so. With a neurological condition that suppresses my immune system, like many, I have been shielding for most of the year. It has meant that the radio, and in particular, music has …

Down With The Kids – Polyhymns’ sound of parenthood and isolation in the digital age is with me in lockdown

I’ve tended to withdraw from social media to a great extent while I’ve been shielding during the lockdown. It was getting a bit too much. It’s no overstatement to say that music has been a real lifeline during the last couple of months, and one track in particular in recent days has done the business. …