We Went Marching To Pretoria (or How I fell in love with Afrikaans in my 36th year)

For those of you who are new here, I am married to 23Thorns. He is also a blogger. We are the modern equivalent of Leonard and Virginia Woolf (but with shoplifting), Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald (but with dassie corpses on the stove), Iris Murdoch and John Bayley (but with a criminally clever Chinese Crested Powder … Continue reading →

“MY GOD… WE ARE LOST” 1912 Footage of Titanic and Two Stories about Torpedoes

I have been fascinated by the sinking of the Titanic since I read Beryl Bainbridge’s Booker nominated novel Every Man for Himself many years ago (before watching the movie, she adds smugly). I remember lying in the bath in my house in Westdene reading the book with my mouth and nose under the water, trying to imagine what … Continue reading →

Great War Service Records, The Importance of Handwritten Notes and Early 20th Century Tattoos.

I am looking at my great grandfather’s almost 100 year-old signature. Here it is in black and white; Arthur Leslie Farrow signed his name in 1917. His pinky finger moved across this piece of paper as he formed his beautiful, almost whimsical letters in Indian ink. The F is a dance. And the whole is underlined with … Continue reading →

The Letter that Makes Me Cry or Jack Baylis Goes to War and Never Comes Home.

“What passing bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns.” ~Wilfred Owen Charles John “Jack” Baylis was born to Helena “Nell” Newell and Charles Joseph “Charlie” Baylis on 8 Jan 1892 in London. He was their only child. He was killed by shell-fire on the Somme on 10 September … Continue reading →