An impressive resource, this. I wonder why I've not heard of Michael Hughes or his site before ? This website is hosted by a former detective sergeant in the Metropolitan Police who worked inside the British criminal justice system for in excess of 25 yrs - including 6 years in one of Her Majesty’...

Christine and I were both very sad to hear that legendary, Oscar-winning director/producer, Sydney Pollack passed away on Sunday at the age of 73. Diagnosed with cancer nine months ago, Pollack died at his home in Pacific Palisades surrounded by his family. I had been a fan of Pollack’s mid-ca...

Director Sydney Pollack died in Los Angeles Monday after a long bout with cancer. He was 73. Pollack's cancer was inoperable because it riddled his entire body and the original site was never found. Trained as an actor, Pollack enjoyed an unusually long and prolific career as a producer and director...

Pinball is on the wane and CT doesn't care: I never could get into it. I don't mind the concept of the ball as a free radical, but so much of the game forces you to be an observer — you watch the ball spring forth, bounce around for a minute or more on various bumpers and bells, and then maybe ...

via No Good Boyo, this English translation of the Dafydd ap Gwilym (approx 1320-1360) poem "Y Rhugl Groen". Enough to make you want to read in the original. George Borrow devoted a whole chapter of "Wild Wales" to him. It's a beautiful, day, you're out, hope springing, with an excellent girl (Dafydd...

Those old British Imperialists sure went in for gross racial stereotyping - here's a gung-ho militarist describing the Siege of Lucknow, 1857 : The natural strength of the Residency at once explains how it was possible for the English to hold out in it against far superior numbers; but this very fac...

The happiest, brightest, most beautiful Easter I have ever spent. I woke early and looked out. As I had hoped the day was cloudless, a glorious morning. My first thought was 'Christ is Risen'. It is not well to lie in bed on Easter morning, indeed it is thought very unlucky. I got up between five an...

In Bromsgrove today to add some Easter flowers to my mother's grave. The daffodils from St David's Day are still in remarkably good nick. I like the cemetery. Just as at Christmas, most of the graves have new flowers. It's good to see. Walking the perimeter of the graveyard, I recognise many of the ...

A.G. MacDonnell's first novel 'England, Their England" is now mostly remembered for his chapter on the village cricket match, but there's a lot more to it. Our hero, Donald, a young Scot making his way in journalism in the 20s, is asked at short notice to produce some theatre reviews for a literary ...

Remember the famous 'one woman in four a victim of domestic violence' stat, oft-quoted but never sourced ? Apparently in the States one female student in four is a victim of rape. Famous children's author Jacqueline Wilson (Laban's take is here) takes liberal hypocrisy into hyperspace. Children's au...