Selected articles
Into the West: an island off an island off an island
The sea water moans as if some vast submarine monster lies chained to the sea floor and has been struggling for a thousand years to break free.
“The House by the Thames and the People who Lived There”, by Gillian Tindall
Munthe was also possessed by an abiding fascination for tramps and street musicians.
“The Cloud of Dust” by Charlie Boxer
Time and time again I felt in the company of a young Dostoevsky, albeit in a jean jacket wandering through the dark streets of Edinburgh rather than in a greatcoat on the avenues of St Petersburg.
“The Fetish Room: The Education of a Naturalist” by Redmond O’Hanlon and Rudi Rotthier
Redmond has developed an entertaining but effective screen formed from a hoard of hilarious anecdotes and runaway stories
“Britain & the Islamic World, 1558-1713”, Gerald Maclean and Nabil Mattar
the two authors keep throwing open the windows to offer us fresh insights, new horizons of inquiry, as well as skipping out through a back door to give us a witheringly close examination of the fabric.
“God's Zoo; Artists, Exiles, Londoners” by Marius Kociejowsk
Each of the fifteen chapters has been condensed into one elegant, superbly long, eccentrically diverse and learned conversation.
“Loyal Enemies; British Converts to Islam, 1850-1950” by Jamie Gilham
The late 19th-century had some advantages for a homegrown Muslim missionary of talent, for the tiresome quarrels between rival sectarian churches had alienated many Christian believers.
Book review: “The Naked Shore: of the North Sea” by Tom Blass
National myths are also slowly washed away. The Romans were less invincible on the water than they liked to boast and even the Vikings are put back into their historical box.
Book review: “Medina in Birmingham, Najaf in Brent: Inside British Islam” by Innes Bowen
Over 60% of Muslims in Britain come from the lands of the old Raj - Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. So Urdu and English are the languages of communication in British Islam, not modern classical Arabic, let alone Koranic Arabic.
Book review: “The Marches: Border walks with my father” by Rory Stewart
Today Rory finds the land no longer in the hands of indigenous native farmers, but increasingly divided between factory farms and national parks, the gaps filled in with a spreading suburbia of retirement villages and tourist-friendly infrastructure.
Book review: “The Stopping Places: a journey through Gypsy Britain” by Damian Le Bas
What gives his book its special poignancy is that in order to create this book (to read, research, question, record and write) he has in the process, expelled himself from his tribe.
Book review: “The Land of the White Horse: visions of England” by David Miles
.. the Uffington White Horse has always been both ancient and modern. It is an ephemeral figure which needs the active participation of every generation, to scour it, in order to survive."
Spirit of Place
He remembered with documentary accuracy what an indifferent, if not bored and shirty, student he had been as both boy and young man, only interested in music, films, cigarettes, booze and girls.
Book review: “Al-Britannia, My Country” by James Fergusson
Three children of Pakistani bus drivers are now working at the very peak of Britain's meritocratic society; Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, Baroness Warsi and cabinet minister Sajid Javid.
Book review - “Victorian Muslim: Abdullah Quilliam and Islam in the West”, edited by Jamie Gilham and Ron Geaves
Queen Victoria not only read Quilliam’s book on Islam but bought copies for all her children.
Pedicab
I yearned for some silk banners, painted gargoyles and bells but once on the road my distaste for washable, pressed plastic disappeared in the elation of the journey.
A London Evening at St Barnabas House, Soho
I am Everyman, she is Knowledge and we meet in the 18th century hall of the House St Barnabas In Soho.
Major Munthe's Garden at Southside House, Wimbledon Common
Apart from the odd weakness for wolfhounds, the Munthes have forsworn pedigree strains and generation after generation have sought new friends from those in the condemned cells at Battersea Dogs Home.
Close to home: Suffolk coast
The coast is everywhere, for the five estuary fingers of Suffolk extend deep inland to grip the county like a tenacious claw.
From St Swithun’s tomb to The Old Man of Wilmington: Barnaby Rogerson & author Mary Miers on the South Downs Way
The ‘whole-wayers’ were often alone, male, and possibly over-equipped with maps, carbon-fibre sticks and backpacks.