An independent tour for yourself and family, or for yourself alone, to less civilized or wilder places, demanded a great deal of money, as well as enterprise and energy. In the early part of the century, such a journey resembled an expedition, as related by Alexander Kinglake in his Eōthen, a pop...
‘Belt-up, you rag-bags,’ he shouted, to his two brothers beckoning from their government surplus lorry. He ploughed into waterpuddles, socks and flesh soaked. ‘Can’t you see I’m coming? Now look at what they’ve made me do!’ Curses ate into him like a corkscrew – ‘I’m wet through now. I’ll catch m...
Jutting chin and jaunty cap and posh Swiss overcoat, Finger stabbing the air to rights, He licked his Tartar lips and stroked His beard, nodding sharply At each injustice he would cure, Clipped decisive words in steam-train language Knit the crowd into carded fabric Any pattern could be printed o...
Such nobility of spirit could not exist for long. He suffered too much at hearing so many sad stories. I think everyone must have met him, and spilled their troubles. His sensibility was legendary, but for him it was a permanent wound. His receptive and unselective spirit continually bled. He was...
People on shore, if they bothered to look any more, saw a common troopship thick with men, one of whom – me – had barged through the crush to the port-side rail, not having been on anything bigger than a ferry boat or a stretch of water wider than the Mersey. Steamships and small yachts on blue r...