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This week’s quote is from Nathaniel Hawthorne (died 1864) I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. Notebook, Oct. 10, 1842 More on Nathaniel Hawthorne (see here) Likes(12)Dislikes(0)

What’s the first word that pops into your head when you hear the name Neville Chamberlain? Was it ‘appeasement’? Or ‘Piece of paper’? Or maybe ‘Peace for our time’? Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement was well-meaning but, in retrospect (and to be fair, at the time, in the minds of many), was fatally flawed. It didn’t…

Tim writes: the scientific name Apus apus comes from the Greek “a pous” meaning without foot.  Swift legs are so small that it was once believed that they did not have any feet.  I remember the old Reader’s Digest book of birds illustrated Swift feet showing all four toes pointing forwards.  But in fact the…

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I was waiting at St Pancras Station one morning this week for the train home. I was early. I’m almost always early. St Pancras station, though it is large, feels more like an open air station than most London stations. Now I know there has to be some sort of hole to let the trains…