Monthly Archives: January 2013

We need better representation not less

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Stephen Liddell

The post below is a mirror of a guest posting I wrote at the excellent Political Idealist website. If you have the slightest interest in UK politics and current affairs then you really should check it out! With the recent … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Politics | Tagged UK news. UK politics. Democracy | 1 Comment

Queen Victoria and her Munshi, Abdul Karim

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Stephen Liddell

As regular readers may be aware, I am putting out tentative feelers in the way of free-lance writing. Amongst the first of my commissions is to write a series of articles for The Muslim Academy Website which is a not … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Religion and Faith | Tagged history, Islam, religion, royalty, Victorian | 6 Comments

Cats that leave ‘presents’ in my garden

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Stephen Liddell

This post may be a little bit screamish but I’ll try and keep it as clean as possible. I live in a small house, I have a small garden too maybe 55 feet long and 18 feet wide. We’re surrounded … Continue reading →

Posted in Life | Tagged cats, garden, outdoors, poo | 5 Comments

What’s in a name? The name’s Liddell, Stephen Liddell.

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Stephen Liddell

Today is one of those days where I had a whole slew of subjects that I could write about but one thing led to the other which is why I am here writing about Robert Burns, the famous Scottish poet … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Northumberland and Durham | Tagged castles, coat of arms, countryside, Cumbria, family tree, Genealogy, history, Liddell, Long reads, Maps, northumbria | 71 Comments

Why don’t we eat horse meat?

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Stephen Liddell

This week much of the news in the UK and Ireland has been dominated by the discovery of horse DNA in a number of popular supermarket beef burgers where a sample from a Tesco burger revealed that rather than being … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, history | Tagged countryside, Culture, food, history, horses, Life, tescos, UK news | 48 Comments

Calligraphy: The Art of writing or why I bought a Fountain Pen

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Stephen Liddell

I don’t know about you but I hate pens. Not all pens but just the cheap throw-away biro type pens that we all seem to have to endure these days. The sort of pens that 20 years ago would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, history | Tagged Art, Beauty, Calligraphy, fountain pens, history, Life, Long reads, Middle-East, national trust, Poetry, writing | 8 Comments

Canterbury Cathedral:- The murder and martyrdom of Thomas Becket

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Stephen Liddell

Recently on the 29th December, a remembrance service was held in Canterbury Cathedral. The service is held every year as it has been for centuries, in memory of one of most dramatic and tragic figures of early Medieval English history, … Continue reading →