Remembering Steve Harley WHEN STEVE HARLEY emerged in the early 70s it was into an era awash with glitter, swagger and carefully-manicured personas — clichéd archetypes fashioned by record label executives. Taking the stage among the ranks of pre-packaged conformity, this newcomer occupied a space slightly apart from the mainstream. Furthermore, when he materialised in …
Wills and Continuity in the Sandall Family WHEN WE THINK of inheritance in eighteenth-century rural England, we often imagine little more than the passing of possessions after death. But the wills left behind by members of the Sandal family of Rippingale suggest something altogether more deliberate. These highly-informative documents reveal ordinary villagers thinking strategically about …
The Story of Jack Wand MBE I WAS BORN in the same south Lincolnshire village in which Jack Wand opened his first shop. As a child, I must have passed that modest storefront countless times — on my way to junior school, or when accompanying my mum on errands to the nearby Co-op — never …
IN THE COURSE of tracing my paternal family through the fenland parishes of south Lincolnshire, one crude, recurrent declaration stood out above all others: Occupation: Ag-Lab. Two blunt syllables. Generation after generation, the same entry appears in parish registers and census returns. Agricultural labourer. Not farmer. Not landowner. Not even cottager. But labourer. It is …
When a Song Disrupts Official Narratives SOME SONGS RESONATE with us through life—songs that entertain, comfort, or simply remind us who we once were. There are some, however, that do something more unsettling: they ask us to confront uncomfortable truths. Singer/songwriter, Harvey Andrews wrote one such song in 1972. It was called 'Soldier.' Its simple, …
A Warship for Uncertain Times IN MY PREVIOUS post — 'May They Both Flourish' — I looked at what it was to be sailor aboard the Royal Navy's County Class cruiser, HMS Shropshire, during World War Two. Here, in a post that will draw a curtain on the series covering my father's wartime naval experience, …
A Sailor's Life Aboard HMS Shropshire & the First Arctic Convoy IN MY RECENT post, “Wet, Cold and Always Tired,” I explored the harsh realities faced by ratings who served aboard Britain’s corvettes during the Second World War. Now, I turn to a very different warship — the Royal Navy’s County-class heavy cruiser, HMS Shropshire. …
Life Aboard a WW2 Corvette THEY WERE NEVER meant to be heroes. Small, hastily designed, and built in civilian shipyards more accustomed to whalers than warships, the Royal Navy’s Flower-class corvettes were born out of urgency. In 1939, Britain faced a familiar nightmare: the slow strangulation of its lifelines by German U-boats. What was needed …
Ravens: Observers at the Edge IN JUNE, 2023 I was visited by a Raven. I wrote of this experience and the life-changing transformation heralded by the bird's appearance in my June '25 post, 'The Raven.' In that post I wrote about the raven as symbol and companion—an archetype that has dwelt beside humanity for centuries. …
When the Mind Turns Against Itself AS I'M SURE you know, the human brain is often described as the ultimate supercomputer. Not only is it extraordinarily efficient and adaptable, it possesses a processing power which beggars belief. Our brain's 86 billion (or so) neurons each form thousands of connections, processing vast amounts of information simultaneously …
RAVEN MOON 