“There was never any certainty about the last ball. Indeed, the vast weight of cricket history, accumulated in so many dusty volumes, now bore down on Sobers, to say: ‘It won’t happen.’ The story of so many matches, where so many thousands of batsmen have played out so many thousands, even millions, of overs. The… Continue reading
Browsing Category Everything else
It’s well into May and we are still waiting for the cuckoo
So where’s the cuckoo? For the third successive year, I haven’t heard it call in the fields around where I live in rural southern England. That is after hearing it, without fail, every spring for more than 20 years. There is still the outside chance that the bird may yet arrive, but it really is… Continue reading →
Oxford meets Istanbul in new book by best-selling Turkish writer Elif Şafak
Three Daughters of Eve, written by Elif Şafak, is set in Oxford and Istanbul and focusses on three Muslim women, several men, and one big question. Ron Charles wrote this in his notice in the Washington Post: Elif Shafak’s new novel reveals such a timely confluence of today’s issues that it seems almost clairvoyant…. Continue reading →
Buckinghamshire’s Anglo-Saxon Lenborough Hoard goes on display
Coins from the Lenborough Hoard are now on permanent display in Buckinghamshire County Museum in Aylesbury. A room dedicated to the finds was opened at the Museum on Saturday, July 15. 2017. The coins passed into public ownership after a successful public appeal raised £1.35 million, the value put on the find by the Treasure Valuation Committee,… Continue reading →
Launching a literature festival in an English village – BeaconLit comes to Ivinghoe
Suitably dramatic skyscape over Windmill Field, close to the BeaconLit venue in Ivinghoe, Bucks. BeaconLit, our local literary festival, was launched in 2013. This year (July 1) is the fifth festival. It is now held in the dry and welcome warmth of the local school in Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire. People attend to be inspired, informed and to… Continue reading →
How Hay Festival ideas stay run the mind and find their time
I like to come away from the Hay Festival with an idea or two to ponder on. Time was short this year, and even then we made one wrong choice. The estimable John Julius Norwich, with his “Four Princes” seemed a good choice, but on reflection it was no more than a polished but ultimately… Continue reading →