A Political Refugee From The Global Village

The author of the Confessions [of a Window-Cleaner, etc.] series was a Cambridge man. Who knew? Christopher Wood died at the same time as...

I love Arab cities. I love that certain smell they have. TAROM in February had a special offer selling return tickets to most of its desti...

He does not look bad in white tie unlike John Major, who looked absurd - but then Mr Corbyn is from a good family. he doesn't look ...

A little boy sees and hears birds with delight. Then his “good father” comes along and feels he should “share” the experience and help hi...

I think it's useful to report what a Syrian Christian friend of mine, who fled to Bucharest from the war, has to say about her fellow ...

'The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.' D.H. Lawrence.  I think of it a...

The Economist today worries about the growing likelihood that Britain will vote to leave the European Union.  Is it possible? I had ass...

As a collective personality, the Romanians are Oriental in their souls although Latin on the surface. Their patience is almost unending ...

This news is six days old but I missed it. According to a confidential German government document, leaked to the newspaper  Bild , 1.5 mil...

Lord Howe of Aberavon, better knowns as Sir Geoffrey Howe, the man who did for Mrs. Thatcher, has died, a week after his long-time Labour o...

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning. John Henry Newman. Your task is not ...

Someone just asked me what Timisoara is like.  I wanted to get there in January 1990 and kicked myself for not getting there sooner wh...

Ninety percent of paid work is time-wasting crap. The world gets by on the other ten. John Derbyshire Humility is not thinking less ...

The best ones I can think of are:  The Well at the World's End, The Wood Beyond the World, A Horse Called Ampersand, The Unbearabl...

A Eurocrat called Frans Timmermans has tweeted: Our societies are getting more diverse. It's the job of politicians to prepare their ...

Two quotations from Jackie Collins to mark her passing. People can smell fear like coffee.   Many people talk about writing. Th...

A British Pakistani friend wrote to me yesterday that "We are seeing the invasion and destruction of Europe.   Hundreds of millio...

The Invasion of 1910   was the name of William Le Queux’s 1906 bestseller warning the readers of cheap British thrillers of the danger ...

At around 5.30 today the Queen surpasses Queen Victoria's reign of 63 years and 216 days and becomes England's longest reigning mon...

Last week I found myself in Constanta in a street called Labarinta, which was as straight as a die.  This is typical of life, I feel.