What's this all about?
I started thinking about this web site when people kept asking me about travels my late partner, Alison, and I had made around the world : the places we had been to and the sights we had seen. I also had a few people asking to read some of the poems I have written and the academic and feature articles I had written on a number of subjects.
How better to open up some of these things than post them on a web site?
Things took off a bit during Lockdown when the regular lockdown diary articles written on Facebook proved popular .
So things have grown and really now I see it as a forum to post opinions, reviews, stories or prose. Travel will be an important theme as will the stories behind the places travelled to. Reviews of restaurants, books, places visited will also play an important part. Most importantly though I would like this site to be humourous as humour is something sadly lacking in our woke driven lives. A place to laugh, to celebrate the good things in life and as a forum to support those who are going through bad times.
In this complicated times when spades are rarely called spades we will try and look at what many of the issues of the day are really about.
You name it. However it's not just my work but I would like to invite anyone who has an opinion to express, a story to tell or a poem to read or review to send them to me and I will consider publishing them.
Of course the site will be subject to editorial control and as such we are looking for genuine and heart felt pieces. If would like some help in writing it we can help you do that.
The site is also subject to the law of the land and anything defamatory, discriminatory or anything containing any other legal infringement will not be published.
I am deeply honoured to have Jacqui Smith and Yvonne McQueen as sub editors. Jacqui has a background in journalism and the wine trade and her support and enthusiasm for the project has been inspirational. Yvonne is also a wine expert with a strong background in restaurants, literature and, as a nurse, medicine.
As I write this I'm bed ridden following eye surgery and I am being nursed by Yvonne to whom I am eternally grateful.
I would also like to thank Carole Brooksbank who has undertaken a lot of analytics work in setting this up. Carole has been, as ever, a real star.
The pages are embryonic at the moment and will develop in time. The travel section in particular will take to finalise however I have added a narrative to some of the photos, especially the Greek ones which I hope some may find interesting.
Brian Harris