Purbeck Synopsis When my children were young, we used to go, as a family, in our sailing boat out of Poole Harbour and into Studland Bay, with its glorious sandy beaches. Little did I know that in Elizabethan times this was the haunt of pirates. One of them was William...
Bournemouth’s Founders and Famous Visitors
Bournemouth’s Founders and Famous Visitors Synopsis In a casino in Las Vegas hangs a unique painting, executed by US painter, John Singer Sargent in August 1885. It depicts Scottish novelist and travel writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny and it is the only image in existence of the...
Corfe Remembered
Corfe Synopsis Even in its ruined state, Corfe Castle retains a majestic aura, whether in sunshine, rain, mist, or snow, as I have witnessed over the years. For me, a resident of South Dorset, it remains a romantic and evocative place, despite the fact that many a dark deed was...
Robert Mugabe: Lost Jewel Of Africa
Robert Mugabe: Synopsis In the 1950s my father suddenly announced that we were to leave our home in Lichfield in the English Midlands and go to live in Southern Rhodesia, where he was to take up the post of headmaster at a school for white children. For my mother, Jean...
Hitler’s Insanity: A Conspiracy of Silence
Hitler's Insanity: Synopsis Adolf Hitler was a paranoid schizophrenic, driven by command hallucinations which controlled his thoughts and deeds. But the question is, did any of his henchmen realise he was ‘mad’? English writer, Dr Samuel Johnson once said, ‘When a man knows he is to be hanged in a...
Agatha Christie: The Finished Portrait
Agatha Christie: Synopsis Agatha Christie was, and is, the world’s most successful detective novelist. Yet, her own life was steeped in sadness: clues to the cause of which may be discovered in her writings. In Agatha Christie: The Finished Portrait, Dr Andrew Norman delves deep into the crime writer’s past...
Mugabe: Teacher, Revolutionary, Tyrant
Mugabe: Synopsis Mugabe has been described as evil, a tyrant, and a monster. Yet, he is a person of academic distinction with a keen sense of humour. How can these seemingly opposed character traits exist in one and the same person? An explanation is offered. Robert Gabriel Mugabe, a former...
Jane Austen: An Unrequited Love
Jane Austen: Synopsis Jane Austen, in her novels, writes of love and romance. But to what extent did they feature in her own life; and what were her own hopes and desires, and were they in any way fulfilled? Jane Austen is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in...
Father of the Blind: A Portrait of Sir Arthur Pearson
Father of the Blind: Synopsis As a child, living in Winchester in southern England I spent much time at the house of my great-grandmother. She lived nearby with her son-in-law Thomas Waldin, a widower.In this house, the name Sir Arthur Pearson was spoken of with reverence, as it was by...
Agatha Christie: The Pitkin Guide
Agatha Christie: Synopsis A beautifully illustrated guidebook for those seeking an introduction to the life of the great detective writer. Agatha Christie is the 'Queen of Crime'. As the best-selling novelist of all time, her stories have been loved by countless readers who have immersed themselves in her vivid characters,...