So we have at last finished our walk. It quite a moment. Over the years all told Jane and I and various dogs have walked over 2,500 miles round Britain: so it’s hard now to find anywhere new we haven’t walked though! We are grateful to the hosts who have been generous. The only problem …
Category: 2026 Walk
Sep 14
Day 14: Aston to Bourne End
Guilty Until Proven Innocent Consider this Chinese proverb quoted by Jung Chang in Wild Swans: “Where there is a will to convict, there will always be evidence.” I chaired a health authority for some years. There was a woman in charge of recruiting, let’s call her Yvonne. She cherished a cluster of ingrained prejudices about …
Sep 13
Day 13: Shiplake to Aston
Dull and Void We are all fearful of boredom – so what do we do to drive that feeling away when we’re sitting idly on a bus or waiting for a friend who’s running late for a coffee? We reach for a stream of entertainment from a screen or headphones – anything to conquer our …
Sep 12
Day 12: Burghfield, Reading to Shiplake
Kicking the Can The realities of our predicament were starkly laid out by Angela Merkel in 2012: “Europe accounts for 7 per cent of the world’s population, 25 per cent of its economy and 50 per cent of its social welfare expenditure.” The second reality is that the UK can never raise more than 38 …
Sep 11
Day 11: Woolhampton to Burghfield, Reading
Marital Gems Our host tells me that he met his present wife at her late husband’s funeral. On another tack, we had a great party before the walk when our eldest grandson announced his engagement to a girl from Texas. What excellent news. Love, Actually I lament the report of the Centre for Social Justice …
Sep 10
Day 10: Newbury to Woolhampton
Joy Shared Macmillan Cancer Support recently published findings showing that 18- to 35-year-olds had, on average, 237 Facebook friends. When asked how many could be relied on in a crisis, the average answer was two, a quarter said one and an eighth said none. Many of my older friends tell me that their friends are …
Sep 09
Day 9: Dun Mill Lock, Hungerford to Newbury
The Black Dog “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting …
Sep 08
Day 8: Wolfhall Bridge, Burbage to Dun Mill Lock, Hungerford
Life’s Golden Rules I read some of the scribbles of Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond books). Among them were the rules he gave Bond to live his life by: 1. Don’t waste time on women who wear a bracelet on the left ankle. 2. Beware of motor cars with two women in the …
Sep 07
Day Off
The Assembly Line In the 1950s, Second World War Spitfire hero Sir Douglas Bader gave an assembly talk to the girls of Benenden School about his part in the Battle of Britain. Not noted for his modesty, he hobbled to the blackboard on his artificial legs and chalked a series of small circles. “It was …
Sep 06
Day 7: Ladies Bridge, Wilcot to Wolfhall Bridge, Burbage
A Shameful Silence When I was at school in the late 1950s, a Jewish friend – I remember his name to this day – suffered appalling antisemitic abuse. Of course, I rushed to his defence, single-handedly fighting the abusers. In fact, spotty little rat that I was, I did no such thing. I pretended I agreed …
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