A sclerotic, disgustingly privileged institution, the reigning House of Windsor needs dragged by the scruff of its neck into restructuring, or abolished altogether. Although no royalist, I’ve never been a…
One of the upsides of visiting the graves of thinkers I admire (or grudgingly respect) is that you see towns and cities, or parts of towns and cities, that you…
In days gone by, on the Isle of Skye, the lands were mostly shared between MacLeods and MacDonalds; Gaelic was the language of all work and social life; and the…
I am nearly at the end. I spent last weekend in Norfolk and Suffolk, not only two English counties largely unknown to me but, usefully, the final resting places of…
I was reminded last week of a gravestone inscription in Honley Churchyard somewhere in England by my close friend Jackie’s emergency surgery whilst on holiday in Palma, Majorca: ‘Where ere…
‘Madam Scotia, Madame Scrap’ by Helene Witcher (Islands Book Trust) Helene Witcher’s portrait of her aunt, Heloise Russel-Fergusson (1896 â 1970), is not only the story of a musical pioneer…
‘The motive of a journey deserves a little attention,’ observed Graham Greene in his 1935 travelogue, Journey Without Maps. ‘It is not the fully conscious mind which chooses West Africa…
I was in Tuscany on holiday last week. Like many Glaswegians, I have a special bond with this beautiful region of Italy. Over the years I have found many unusual…
Even in these troubling times, spare a thought for Jenny Gilruth MSP, appointed Transport Minister in January and, since 1 April, given ultimate responsibility for the management of a railway…
I thought I’d finished but I hadn’t. In my pursuit of Prime Ministerial graves I had believed two to be off limits â the 1st Earl of Wilmington (1742-43) and…