Category: That Reminds Me . . .

DESPITE my hatred of aeroplanes, a few years ago my reptile-loving better half persuaded me to make the nine-hour flight to Florida so she could take me to the Turtle … Continue readingMan meets manatee

WHEN was the last time you heard someone whistling a merry tune? In my younger days it seemed that every labourer whistled while he worked and some were real virtuosi, … Continue readingWhere have all the whistlers gone?

I HAVE written before about the drinking culture that prevailed on national newspapers in the days when words were scribbled on copy paper and computers were still a distant threat. Great attention … Continue readingTake a break

WRITING my recent Greek travelogue reminded me that in 1982 my first bride and I booked a last-minute holiday to the island of Poros. It was so cheap and basic that you … Continue readingHowling over a Greek dog

AS the Daily Mail wails and gnashes its teeth over the demise of Boris Johnson (will this do, Prime Minister, can I have my peerage now?) it’s worth remembering that Johnson once … Continue readingJohnson and a most unsavoury incident

ON August 19, 1987, a gun fanatic named Michael Ryan went on the rampage in his home town of Hungerford, Berkshire. By the end of his murderous spree, 16 people … Continue readingHungerford and Dunblane, English and Dacre

THERE is something about music at funerals that reduces my wife and me to quivering wrecks. The majestic Nimrod, from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, was played at both services for Margaret’s mother and father, … Continue readingThe unbearable beauty of funeral music

IT WAS a hot Greek night in mid-July and my friend Bob decided after a surfeit of ouzo that he fancied a swim. He climbed on to a railing and … Continue readingBob’s midnight swim

A FRIDAY evening tradition when I worked in Blackburn in the 1970s was a crawl around a group of eight or nine run-down town-centre pubs known collectively as the Barbary … Continue readingDanger on the Barbary Coast

BY far the most larger-than-life character I ever worked with was Fred Shawcross – newspaper sub-editor, nightclub drummer, racing tipster and greyhound breeder. When I arrived on the subs’ desk … Continue readingThe legendary Fred Shawcross