Showing 1 - 10 of 41
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.
Where there's Muck there's puffins
Oped, Roger Crutchley, Published on 30/11/2025
» Important news from Northern Ireland. For the first time in more than 25 years puffins have been spotted on the quaintly named Isle of Muck. The isle is a nature reserve on the Antrim coast and derives its unusual name from the adjacent town of Portmuck.
The amazing paddy fields of England
Roger Crutchley, Published on 05/10/2025
» Important news from Blighty. Rice has been grown for the first time in Britain in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. Apparently this is a result of an unusually hot summer. For a project that had once been dismissed as a joke it's quite an achievement. Let's hope the notoriously fickle English weather doesn't spoil it all. It will probably start snowing tomorrow.
A magician from the trenches of war
Roger Crutchley, Published on 07/09/2025
» Last month PostScript mentioned the strange phenomenon of how the 1950s British ventriloquist Peter Brough and his schoolboy dummy Archie Andrews had a successful radio show called Educating Archie. Although Brough's ventriloquist skills was a visual art and seemed wasted on radio it didn't appear to bother listeners.
It's a bit on the warm side in the UK
Roger Crutchley, Published on 06/07/2025
» It seems a trifle strange to be sitting in Bangkok and reading about a heatwave in London, but at times last week it's been hotter in Britain than Thailand, while the rest of Europe has also been sizzling. You know something is wrong when at Wimbledon the umbrellas have been going up not for the rain but to protect spectators from the sun.
A 10-day journey across snowy Iran
Roger Crutchley, Published on 22/06/2025
» Watching events unfold in the Middle East last week sparked memories of the brief time I spent in Iran a long time ago in more peaceful times. In February 1969 I travelled across the northern part of the nation during an overland trip from London to New Delhi. The country was still run by the Shah who was overthrown 10 years later in the Iranian Revolution.
Thai RoboCop walking tall at Songkran
Roger Crutchley, Published on 27/04/2025
» The most important news emerging from the recent Songkran activities is that Thailand finally has its own "RoboCop". The kingdom's first AI police robot was spotted on active duty in Nakhon Pathom province keeping an eagle eye on water-throwing activities. It has been given the name Pol Col Nakhon Pathom Plod Phai, which is admittedly bit of a mouthful but roughly translates as "Nakhon Pathom is safe".
Great debates… and some not so great
Roger Crutchley, Published on 30/03/2025
» No-confidence debates similar to that which took place in the Thai parliament earlier in the week have become something of a tradition in the kingdom, but I can’t recall any such motion ever being successful. Still, at least it gives the MPs an opportunity to share their words of wisdom with us hoi polloi.
Slow horses playing a strange game
Roger Crutchley, Published on 02/03/2025
» Last week's account in PostScript of the painfully slow horse I bet on at the Epsom Derby back in the Dark Ages prompted a reader to enquire if I had seen the British television series Slow Horses. I'm pleased to say I have and for those who are unfamiliar with the production I should point out that it has nothing do with the equine world but is an absorbing British spy thriller laced with dark humour.
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.