Saltwater Shadows
Poem | When seaside living is just not meant to be
Continue reading
Book Review | Historical Fiction Driven by her promise to her dying father, Maggie fights for equality and accessibility of education in this powerful tale of love and war in early 20th century Dublin. I relished this immersive tale of love and the struggle for a better future, set against the Irish turmoil, the call for the Irish Republic and the social inequality of Dublin’s inhabitants: from the well-to-do who send their children to private…
Continue readingPoem | The lovely scents of Spring: freshly mown grass and intoxicating flowers
Continue readingBook Review | Detective & Mystery Malcolm Hollingdrake’s well-established, highly praised crime series, set in the gorgeous Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate. The books in the Harrogate Crime Series masterfully blend police procedural, investigation, and personal narratives. The beautiful town of Harrogate provides a backdrop for the threat posed by cold-blooded (serial) killers. All written in Malcolm Hollingdrake’s unique, sometimes poetic but always eloquent, writing style we love. The Books Each of the fourteen books…
Continue readingArticle | Life Lessons Dare to stand out. Or are you obsessed with being part of the herd? ‘Don’t wear bright colours,’ my aunt said to her husband. I was in my teens and wondered about that statement. Later I found out the reason and was stunned. Let me explain. My father’s brother, like his parents and siblings, was of Dutch nationality but born in Indonesia — then the Dutch Indies. History buffs will know…
Continue readingArticle | Bite-Size History Examining the theories and counter-theories from May-June 1940 The “Conventional” Wisdom about the Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo The successful, relentless advance by German Army Group A under the direction of Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt, under operation Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), left over 400,000 Allied troops trapped at Dunkirk, their backs to the sea, forced to abandon all their equipment. With victory over “perfidious Albion” in his grasp, the Führer inexplicably stopped…
Continue readingArticle | Life Lessons How reliable are our memories? My father used to film and photograph the three of us growing up: my brother, sister, and me. An 8mm film camera and slides. I remember sitting in the living room after a family holiday, the curtains closed, the whirring sound of the projector aimed at the wall. Those were the times! But were they? How does what we experience in our childhood, throughout adolescence and…
Continue readingArticle | Bite-Size History A day of infamy. Analysing the evidence of Japan’s declaration on war on the US. Where were you when the Twin Towers were attacked? Where were you when American President J.F. Kennedy was assassinated? Do you know where you were when Princess Diana tragically died? For certain generations, that pivotal seismic event was the Japanese bombing of the US Naval Station at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. And in its…
Continue reading
