• 24 October 2024
  • 4 comments

What would you have done?

When I was told by my oncologist, on Friday 13th September, that there were no further conventional treatments to try to slow down my stage 4 prostate cancer, it confirmed what I already knew.  In the event, not a great shock. My cancer was first confirmed in November 2022, so I have nearly lasted two years without much pain or inconvenience.  And now I’ve survived another month.  I’d like to stay alive a bit longer because there are a number […]

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  • 20 October 2024
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Being Realistic

Not the most catchy title, but, I hope, if you read on, you’ll at least find it an accurate indication of what follows. Just a bit of context.  I, like Sir Chris Hoy, have stage 4 prostate cancer but, unlike him, the prediction is that I have only a few months to live, not a few years.  Never before have I been able to claim I was ahead of Sir Chris!  In fact, I’m ahead of him twice; he is […]

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  • 4 August 2024
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The Delay

Seat belts were fastened and we were ready to go when the captain announced our departure would be delayed.  She explained that a group of Japanese tourists were held up in immigration, but that their luggage had already been loaded into the hold.  She assured us the delay would only be a matter of a few minutes. I turned to my neighbour who was gazing at his wrist watch, an ostentatiously expensive  Breitling, as if doing so might speed things […]

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  • 21 July 2024
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Update from a street seller

In my paper yesterday there was piece about three British women who have rowed 2,800 nautical miles from California to Hawaii.  It took 38 days, 1 hour and 34 minutes, thus knocking 25 hours off a previous record set by men.  The journey was perilous.  Waves hit their boat at 90 degrees to their direction of travel, and they capsized three times.  They suffered from sleep deprivation and blistered hands. At the end of the piece it says, ‘The women […]

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  • 11 July 2024
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The Poet

The other day a poet friend of mine wrote a poem about me.   I didn’t even know he wrote poetry so it was totally unexpected, but there it was on page 27 of his new collection.   His carer had put the slim booklet of verses in the post to me with a note.  I’ve described him as a friend but that’s misleading.  More accurately, he is an acquaintance, a colleague I once worked with on a project to do with […]

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  • 21 May 2024
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The breather

Before sitting down, they read the two plaques on the bench; one saying it was made from recycled plastic and the other that Dorothy had always loved sitting here admiring the view. ‘I wonder who Dorothy was,’ said Alan, as he sank onto the bench, grateful to have somewhere to rest his aching legs. ‘Someone with an odd taste in views,’ answered Brian, wriggling his shoulders to encourage his rucksack to slide down his arms.  He lowered it to the […]

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  • 12 May 2024
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Obstacles

Once the old man had got over the shock of his cancer diagnosis, he made a decision: he’d sell the two paperbacks he’d recently written to raise money for Cancer Research UK.  During his career he’d made many decisions and, having made them, was accustomed to taking the steps necessary to bring them to fruition.   Inevitably, some ideas had proved easy to implement and others had been troublesome but, generally speaking, he was accomplished at overcoming obstacles and steering  things […]

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  • 8 May 2024
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The good old days?

I went to school a long time ago (correction: a very long time ago) and I have just found a document dated December 1955.  It is headed plaintively, ‘Please read this’ and it is from the Principal (headmaster in ordinary language) to parents. My secondary school was a minor public school (in other words private), boys only, where trouser pockets had to be sewn up, no footballs were allowed (rugby balls yes, footballs no), prefects were called praepositors, there was […]

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  • 3 May 2024
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Nature or Nurture?

I thought the nature-nurture controversy was over with, happily, nurture coming out on top.  However, I read an interesting piece recently about coaching football players.  It reported that, at a recent meeting of the Premier League Academy, there was a discussion about how to create players who were equally skilled with both feet.  One of the academy coaches apparently said, ‘Some kids are naturally two-footed and some are not. Coaching has nothing to do with it’.  Of course, I wasn’t […]

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  • 8 April 2024
  • 2 comments

The fait accompli

Robin had requested the meeting and, having done so, realised there was no going back.  The Canon’s study was far from welcoming, a large room with a high ceiling and an ornate plaster cornice.  Despite its size, it was overwhelmed with furniture; a sofa, three generous armchairs, an oak rolltop desk and a scattering of side-tables.  The walls were lined with shelves with books stacked in higgledy-piggledy arrangements.  They looked dusty, uninviting, and Robin wondered how many of them had […]

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Latest Article

Music, the confessions of a low middlebrow

  Last night I was at Wigmore Hall listening to a concert given by Iestyn Davies (countertenor) and Thomas Dunford (lute) and, not for the first time, I reflected on my musical likes and dislikes. My wife and I often go to Wigmore — certainly once a week, sometimes twice — so I have plenty of time to mull things over.  Particularly so this week when, in addition to last night’s concert, I will have listened to music performed at […]

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Latest Blog

What would you have done?

When I was told by my oncologist, on Friday 13th September, that there were no further conventional treatments to try to slow down my stage 4 prostate cancer, it confirmed what I already knew.  In the event, not a great shock. My cancer was first confirmed in November 2022, so I have nearly lasted two years without much pain or inconvenience.  And now I’ve survived another month.  I’d like to stay alive a bit longer because there are a number […]

Read blog

“Learning has a beginning, middle and no end.”