It’s the heart of winter here and January has its got its gnarled fingers well and truly into our souls. Some days its cold and wet, others it’s mild and windy, others icy and sunny, and a few snowy and beautiful. At this time of year, many of us want...

Oh, to go to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat … The classic children’s poem, The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear, has been a family favourite for many years; I used to read it to my son, Alex, at bedtime. It weaves its quirky magic in every line, taking us...

Boating on the River Avon Stratford-upon-Avon On a sunny summer’s day Stratford-upon-Avon is the epitome of Englishness. Families picnic on the grass. couples canoodle under trees, canal boats moor up beside a pub, ice-creams are scoffed, dogs are walked and swans are a-swimming.  Children splash beneath an elegant sculpture of...

Say the name ‘Beatrix Potter’ and no doubt images of cute bunnies, dim-witted ducks, sailing frogs, frisky squirrels, naughty kittens, mischievous mice and perky pigs come to mind. Her little books have had a place of many children’s hearts for over a hundred years. At my son’s birth he got two copies...

‘The Jumblies’ illustrated by Ian Beck When my son was young, like many parents, I used to read to him at bedtime. Such a special point in the day, when we could snuggle up together, him all warm and cosy after a bath. He loved stories but also poems and...

Elizabeth Gaskell published 'Cranford' in 1851 and based it on her experiences of life in the attractive Cheshire town of Knutsford before she was married. Today Knutsford celebrates this famous author and her feisty 'Amazons'.

Ithaka The last of the summer sun flooded the beach and filtered through the open widows of the Ithaki Restaurant on Ornos Beach, Mykonos..* It was Oxi Day, the 28th October, a national holiday in Greece, celebrating the day they said ‘No’ to the Italian dictator Mussolini in 1940.  (He demanded...