An interesting piece in the Guardian by Peter Hain (Lord Hain, the former Labour minister.) He makes a strong case for a halt to all pending trials of Extinction Rebellion (ER) activists, accused of deliberate criminal damage in their attempts to highlight the climate crisis. Last month (April 2021) six members of ER, charged with… Continue reading
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Can rewilding call back the cuckoo?
The rewilding movement is burgeoning. But how much can be restored? Could species threatened by climate change soon be gone for good? Walk around my village in Southern England, and it’s a rare day when I don’t see the red kite gliding nonchalantly overhead on wide wings. I even see this familiar scavenger… Continue reading →
Poirot turns 100: how the Belgian ‘tec met his match in the desert
In October 1920 Agatha Christie introduced Hercule Poirot in her novel, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”. And the great detective lives on, in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Death on the Nile, which follows the actor/director’s Murder on the Orient Express. The film is expected to open late in 2020. 1994 I interviewed David Suchet on set during the filming of… Continue reading →
The unbeatable cricket record? – Bradman’s 300 in a day in the Leeds Test Match
On July 11th, 1930, at the Headingley ground in Leeds, Donald Bradman became the first and only batsmen to score 300 in a day in a Test Match. It was at the time the highest score by a Test batsmen – he was out the next day for 334. His score included the fastest ever… Continue reading →
When Bradman’s “Invincibles” came to Worcester – cricket as national balm in 1948
“A field cannot be set to such genius, with the ability, in the twinkling of an eye, to find the exact stroke to any chosen part he may select. Bradman in true faith can play any stroke at will.“ At the opening of the 1948 cricket season, as the nation still endured a brutal… Continue reading →
How Mr Jones scooped the world aboard Hitler’s plane
Mr Jones, directed by Agnieszka Holland, with James Norton, Vanessa Kirby and Peter Sarsgaard, is now streaming on Netflix and other movie platforms. “A few feet away [from me] sits Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany and leader of the most volcanic nationalist awakening which the world has seen. Six thousand feet beneath us, hidden by… Continue reading →