Spartacus – Legends never die

Today my blog is going to go off at a little bit of a tangent as I don’t normally mention television programmes let alone shows that are fair to say not main-stream viewing. However this week sees the return to British TV screen of Spartacus following behind by a week or so from its scheduling… Continue reading Spartacus – Legends never die

A Soliloquy to my childhood city or a brief guide to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

Though I have lived in the London area for most of my life, I still don’t really consider myself as being at home here.  No offence to anyone but home is always home and the city I consider home is that of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the North-East of England some 320 miles away. Newcastle… Continue reading A Soliloquy to my childhood city or a brief guide to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

Body of King Richard III found under council car park

‘Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of Kings’.  Well we could do that but the ground outside is frozen at this time of year and besides, the previous sentence refers to King Richard II. Getting to the point, history is being re-written today as archaeologists have confirmed that… Continue reading Body of King Richard III found under council car park

You think that you know Great Britain?

It easy for people who don’t live here (and even for some of us who do) to think that everything in Britain is old. We’re famous for old buildings and traditions but huge construction projects such as the London Olympics are helping to show us in a new light. Throughout much of the mid-late 20th… Continue reading You think that you know Great Britain?

Queen Victoria and her Munshi, Abdul Karim

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 for profit organisation set up to create cross cultural discussion promote the sometimes  lesser known… Continue reading Queen Victoria and her Munshi, Abdul Karim

What’s in a name? The name’s Liddell, 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 whose birth was celebrated on January 25th as it is every year.  Or actually I’m… Continue reading What’s in a name? The name’s Liddell, Stephen Liddell.

Why don’t we eat horse meat?

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 a beef burger, there was in fact 29% horse-meat.  Knowing the low quality of some… Continue reading Why don’t we eat horse meat?

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

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 attached to the end of a chain at banks or medical practices. Sufficient to write… Continue reading Calligraphy: The Art of writing or why I bought a Fountain Pen