Category Archives: Memoir
The Bard of Beckenham
Gordon Burness was born in London on May 7, 1928. When he died in the same city aged 86 he left no large footprint in history, but those close to him knew that a remarkable man had passed. He had … Continue reading
Another Remembrance Day
Veterans Day came round again last week. It brought to mind a boy standing in the drizzle beside a war memorial near London on what is called Remembrance Day over there. I have a black and white picture in my … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir, Other
Tagged John Muir, Joyce Kilmer, Remembrance Day, Trees, Veterans Day
1 Comment
Dear Jean
Dear Jean I couldn’t leave my students to say farewell. Our friends told me it was one of those miserable days before the daffodils bloom along the Cambridge College Backs: Scots would call it a “dreich day”. Pronounced correctly, everyone … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir
Tagged Cambridge, embryology, Grantchester, IVF, Jean Purdy, Robert_Edwards, Rupert Brooke, science
4 Comments
Bertie’s Latest Poem
The first time we met Bertie she was sitting behind bottles of apple butter and pickled vegetables laid out on a wooden table in the green outside Sharp’s Store in West Virginia. The bottles were lined up in serried ranks, … Continue reading
The Good, the Bad, and the Cannibals
The cannibal hungrily carved muscle from the girl’s body; then he broke “Jane’s” skull open to scoop out brain matter. But it was neither in New Guinea nor in the Amazon jungle that her corpse was plundered; it happened in … Continue reading
