In the early hours of September 1, 1983, Major Gennady Osipovich in a Su-15 missile equipped jet fighter of the Soviet air force took off from Dolinsk-Sokol Airfield on the island of Sakhalin to fly into history and into infamy and to intercept an unidentified aircraft that had penetrated Soviet air space. His unnamed partner was flying a MiG 23.

The unidentified aircraft was a KAL South Korean airline Boeing 747 – 200B flight KE007 from New York to Seoul via…

The story of the limerick, the carrier of much folklore, may itself be folklore. Although some researchers assert that this form of rhyme was in use in the golden Grecian years, 448 to 380BC. The great Greek dramatist Aristophanes had a good hand at the terse verse.



Pre-eminent in the 'Old Comedy' genre, he was a brilliantly intelligent conservative with the greatest contempt for democracy. He despised the establishment dramatists. In 'The Frogs' he savaged several of them.…

The severing of heads in moments of heightened excitement plays an intriguing part in the annals of the Welsh folk culture. This must seriously shine a light on the foibles of the Celts who lived in Wales in ancient times. Many may recall…

I met him for the first time in the early summer of 1963. I was walking, guitar case in hand, to my appointed busking position. I was in no great hurry. Respectable street-musicians don't rush anywhere, especially not on sunny days, and certainly not in Paris.

He had a collection of sketches of famous people set out along the wall on the river bank. I remember that day and him very clearly. His big brown…

Easter is a period packed with custom and ritual. How could it not be so? It is, after all, another one of those marvellous pagan revels, snitched from the 'Old Religions' and put to jolly good use by the cunning, dastardly, and commercially aware Christians. 'Life is a cavalcade, old chum' someone said.

Even the name of this festival shows its heathen origin. Easter comes from Eastre, or Eostre. She was, still is perhaps, the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of spring and dawn.…

There was a time when I travelled the valleys of South Wales quite extensively. I have clear, sometimes dramatic, memories of battling both the roads and the elements. I remember Rhymney, Llanilleth, Cwm, Ebbw Vale, Brecon Beacons, Merthyr Tydfil, Bryn-Mawr, Black Mountain and the Heads of the Valley Road.

Sitting in the quiet of the local library,

I seek enlightenment in an antediluvian

on-loan tome, available to own only

from a mail-order book…

I wrote ‘Memories Clear – Images of Holmfirth’ as a result of researching ‘Questions In Time’ a journal article for the magazine ‘Open Writing’.  The focus of the article being the traditional choral folksong ‘The Holmfirth Anthem’- a long-time favourite of mine, and others - the research, started in the days of the floppy disc and completed in the digital everything age was long overdue. The town of Holmfirth overlooks the Holm Valley in the West Yorkshire…

Somewhere in the inspirational past an erudite lecturer of economics introduced me and my fellow inebriates to the maxim ‘there are lies, damned lies and statistics’, it has remained with me as a guiding light throughout my working life, so much so that, with apologies to Mark Twain [1835-1910] I often paraphrase it into support of other arguments.

I use the term argument not in a contentious way, a dispute where there is strong disagreement, but as a fact…

 With the coming of every election, confusion reigns supreme at poling booths all over the country. Each party's dedicated faithful hand out a form of instant litter known as 'how to vote cards' and the ever-growing army of floating voters ignores them.

The 'how to vote card' is a political paradox. It can be very useful when deciding how not to vote, despite the unconscionable vitriol spewed out daily in the gutter press of the Rupert the Dirty…