What you will find on this blog are posts about travel, posts about life experience, posts about art, and posts about ideas. But primarily they are all posts that try to make use of the power of language, because nothing can be more moving or convincing than a fine phrase.
I'm afraid there is nothing very modern or up-to-the-minute here, because most of my writings are quite ‘dated’. But what you will find – I hope – is an attempt to capture human experience on the hop, as it were, before it fades forever.
That might sound a bit solemn, but in fact I derive a lot of pleasure from writing, even writing that describes difficult experiences. I hope to be able to convey some of that pleasure to you too.
What qualifications have I got that might fit me for this task? Well, I studied English at university and I taught English in England for over 15 years. On top of that I have adored reading the masters of English prose for most of my life.
Thus this is a blog primarily for people who like reading, though I've done my best to append to my posts relevant images whenever I could.
The series of posts I have called My Story seek to portray a time of my life from the age of 18 to 28 when I slowly bungled my way out of puzzled and muddled boyhood into something somewhat self-confident.
Updated September 2023
Click on the appropriate link:
My Story
Made for love, but paired with a vixen.
Foot-slogging in the dunes.
Second attempt to connect with femininity.
The crash of my army career.
A third girlfriend and a dim dream of finally seeing Europe.
A fascinating discovery of another country.
Heroic efforts to capture a lost love.
Wage slavery at a holiday camp.
Uncomfortable slumber in a police cell.
A little innocent sowing of wild oats.
Confessions of an unwelcome child.
A man who could not consummate his love for women.
Attachment to another girl and a hurried, reluctant
departure for France.
Abandoned
by a travelling companion in a foreign country.
Captured by the spectacle of Spain and bewitched by another woman, I succumb to severe sunstroke.
Encounter with a far better travelling companion.
How I almost drowned in the Mediterranean Sea and managed to climb a mountain in Austria.
How I became besotted by yet another woman.
Two
short tales about working in France and the birth of a critical
decision.
A
story of my experience of a German beer hall and attempted sexual intercourse in the
front passenger seat of a Volkswagen Beetle.
Working all through the night on the construction of the new Victoria Line of the London Underground.
Not
over the great blizzard that struck Winnipeg on March 4th
1966, but in the company of new Winnipeg friends.
A trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Begging in a national park in Canada, getting a lift with an English
cowboy and being taken for a clueless dude.
A
post about being thrown onto the street once more, condemnation again
to wage slavery and a fresh rejection from another girl.
The
last hitch-hiking trip of my life and my last visit to Spain for many
years.
A detailed description and what it taught me about life - and death.
A story about a peculiar invasion.
Travel
Encounter with West Africa: Part 1 - England
Encounter with West Africa: Part 2 - The Gambia
Encounter with West Africa: Part 3 - Senegal
Story about a fishing trip to the wilderness of Western Ontario
How my two sons and I were intimidated by a trio of rogues.
Story of a journey I made to Holland with my elder sun.
Story of a confusing trip from Manchester to Winnipeg in Canada.
Story of another confusing trip from Vancouver to Manchester.
Great Artists
Stories
