Showing 1 - 10 of 14
Words of the year are bit of a worry
Roger Crutchley, Published on 07/12/2025
» More words or phrases of the year have been drifting in courtesy of the major dictionaries and I'm afraid most of them are not particularly encouraging. In fact some are a disturbing indication of the direction in which the English language and society are heading.
The time I really put my foot in it
Oped, Roger Crutchley, Published on 19/10/2025
» A half-hearted spring-cleaning session at home during the week came to a welcome halt when I unearthed a couple of my father's wartime RAF books under a pile of disintegrating paperbacks. The Air Ministry books, published more than 80 years ago, always serve as a reminder of when as a kid I made a faux pas of embarrassing proportions.
A cheap room with a precious view
Roger Crutchley, Published on 02/02/2025
» I have just spent a month in Chaiyaphum and during that time visited Loei province and the Mekong River town of Chiang Khan on the border with Laos. It prompted memories of my first trip to Loei many moons ago.
You can look, but please don't touch
Roger Crutchley, Published on 01/09/2024
» When we were kids, most of us heard the words "don't touch that!" from our parents if we were in the presence of something breakable and possibly valuable. That's probably what a father wishes he had said when he took his four-year-old son to a museum in the Israeli city of Haifa last week.
From Fleet Street to the Big Chilli
Roger Crutchley, Published on 05/05/2024
» It came as a shock to learn that long-time friend and colleague Colin Hastings died on Monday in Bang Saray when he suffered heart failure and the car he was driving collided with a wall. He was 73. Here are a few personal memories of Colin, best known as publisher of Big Chilli magazine.
It's feeling a bit on the warm side
Roger Crutchley, Published on 07/04/2024
» It was Oscar Wilde who observed that "conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative". He might have had a point but it means there are a lot of unimaginative people in Thailand at present. I can hardly recall a conversation lately without a reference to the heat. It has definitely been "a bit on the warm side".
When people browsed in bookshops
Roger Crutchley, Published on 17/12/2023
» Earlier this week I watched the 1987 film 84 Charing Cross Road. The reason for my interest was that the road has always been my favourite London thoroughfare. The film, which I won't go into, is about a long-distance literary friendship between characters played by Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.
Those happy days of family albums
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 25/06/2023
» For most of June I have been squirrelled away in Chaiyaphum and very pleasant it has been too. There has been a fair amount of rain which is good news for our rubber trees which were looking decidedly thirsty.
Word of the year is hardly comforting
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 06/11/2022
» The most noteworthy news of the week is that Collins Dictionary came out with what it regards are the top 10 words of the year, saying they reflect the state of the world at the moment. It does not make happy reading.
Cold War getting too hot for comfort
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 20/02/2022
» Having been brought up in the 1950s and 60s during what was known as the Cold War, I find it a bit sad that after all the ensuing decades nothing seems to have changed. Russia and the West are at it again, still calling one another names. But as long as it remains name-calling we'll take that.