Book review. East West Street, by Philippe Sands This is the best book I read in 2018. You might initially mistake it for a wartime thriller, with a Shakespearean twist. A mysterious woman from Norfolk travelled to Vienna in the summer of 1939 to pick up a one year old child and deposit her in… Continue reading
Browsing Category Everything else
Carpe Diem – how to have a good day, every day
“There are many different ways to interpret the two words that have touched so many aspects of human culture. So many people know what they mean in Latin, and yet don’t apply them often enough in their everyday lives.” This is the time for good intentions, clean slates, things to do purposefully listed, firm resolution…. Continue reading
Turkish writer Elif Şafak at Cambridge Literary Festival
Elif Şafak talked to Maureen Freely at the Cambridge Literary Festival, Saturday, November 24th Her latest book Three Daughters of Eve is set in Oxford and Istanbul and focusses on three Muslim women, several men, and one big question. Two university cities, both equally celebrated. But one of them far outpaces the other as… Continue reading
Garfield Sobers – genius on a Swansea cricket pitch
Garfield Sobers, by any estimation, was a genius. England fast bowler Fred Trueman described him as a “sublime left-hand batsman” who was “one of the greatest cricketers ever to have graced the game, certainly the greatest all-rounder”. This is the sixth in a series of extracts I am publishing in the lead up to the 50th… Continue reading
Sobers’ six sixes ground – where tide tables dictated the bowling
“The incoming tide was said to favour the bowlers [at St Helens]. Glamorgan captains of the past such as Wilf Wooller and Maurice Turnbull would consult the tide tables for Swansea Bay before going out to take the toss.” How Garfield Sobers beat cricket’s ultimate record. Extract 5. This is the fifth in a series… Continue reading
Swansea the setting for cricket history
How Garfield Sobers beat cricket’s ultimate record. Extract 4. This is the fourth in a series of extracts I shall be publishing in August in the lead up to the 50th anniversary of the day, Saturday, August 31st, when Garfield Sobers became the… Continue reading