Following the death our final parent last year, we’ve been investigating and organising their residual possessions. In November, we opened Great Grandfather John Donnelly’s 100-year-old strong box.

Of all the belongings Mum and Dad left us, the most interesting was a chest of photos and documents. These were accumulated across more than a century – stretching back through the old family house at Earlings, the earlier, larger, one at Lufkins, and my maternal grandparent’s previous base in Derbyshire from before 1942.

I was carrying four hemp bags worth of the chest’s contents when I visited cousin Donna in Suffolk, in November. Read more »

My father, Reg Baker, was a dispatch rider for the British Army’s Royal Army Ordinance Corps, in Palestine, between 1946 and 1948.

This was a period of growing violence between elements from within the local Jewish community and British soldiers. These events were part of 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine which evolved into the into the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Read more »

Evening

It’s been a while since I did one of these. A round up from the past 18 months … Read more »

Every year, my friend Simon Peace throws a min-festival of love, hope and peace in his back garden in Hertfordshire. It’s called PeaceFest.

At Peacefest, the festivalgoers are strongly encouraged to get on stage and contribute performance art.

Last year (PeaceFest 2012) we decided we needed some theatre, so I scanned the internet for a free 10-minute play to stage. I was unable to find anything appropriate, so I wrote one Read more »

Hello

Since publishing my book, I’ve made it my business to ask anyone using the noun ‘God’ (and who is up for discussing such things) to define what they mean by the word.

My experience (and at this point I’ve asked quite a few people) is that the only available (coherent) definitions are: ‘a man’ or ‘the Universe’. Read more »