Summer of Love ’67 – The very first rock festival in the World
It’s fifty years since the Summer of Love, and exactly fifty years to the day since the very first rock festival in the world took place on May 29th 1967. … Continue reading
Christmas ain’t over till the bag lady sings
The festive season in Spain just keeps on giving. Even when you fall to your knees begging it to stop. Here in sleepy old Conil de la Frontera, January 5th … Continue reading
Hurrah for the Blackshirts!
It Can’t Happen Here On the morning of April 9th 1940 mum’s cousin, Bjørg, got out of bed to celebrate her eleventh birthday. That wasn’t the only event to make the … Continue reading
The Guardian weaves tangled web pages
My grandfather originated from Hammerfest in Norway. Once renowned for being the northernmost town in the world, the fact he was born there doesn’t cut much ice with anyone beyond … Continue reading
Recollections of my Father
AT SOME POINT in the 1950s, to the excitement of my three sisters and I, Dad ordered Woman’s Weekly magazine to be delivered to our house each Wednesday. We soon learned it … Continue reading
Shaun Walker renews MH17 propaganda offensive
This article also appears in Off-Guardian. An abridged version appears in Russia Insider. With the shadow of nuclear war looming it becomes even more crucial to focus the spotlight on … Continue reading
At the End of Tobago Street
GAIL WOULD NEVER FORGET the moment she first saw Howard. Something about him insisted itself on her consciousness in a way she’d never known. Without needing so much as an introduction she … Continue reading
A few days in … Sevilla
“Where there’s a church there’s going to be a pub,” my father used to say, driving us home from Sunday afternoon outings in the countryside. He would scan the horizon … Continue reading
A Ramble Around My Aunt – Part One
Whether to distract attention from crumbling plaster, or to conceal peeling and mildewed wallpaper, a pair of matching oil paintings hung on the wall across from the bed in my … Continue reading
Double, double, toil and trouble… the cauldron of Kiev
Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble … Trying to figure out what’s really happening in Ukraine, from what passes as news these days, is akin to putting a … Continue reading
A Tale of Three Women
“Canna ashoo a queshoon?” I looked round to see a short, stubby woman lurching drunkenly towards me in the dingy fisherman’s bar near the river. “If you’rr marr’d, ah’m no’ … Continue reading
Bryan Hemming 