Category: 2022 Walk

Day 14: Runnymede to Walton-on-Thames

The Mystery of Faith Alec Douglas-Home, prime minister from 1963 to 1964, and a devout member of the CoE reticent, was once cornered in a lift by a woman who roared at him, “Have you been saved?”  A nervous Douglas-Home said thanks for asking and that he thought he had. “Then why aren’t you leaping …

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Day 13: Eton to Runnymede

The penultimate day, spent with delightful ZANE supporters. We discussed a range of subjects, including Brexit and the current political turmoil. We ended up in Runnymede, where the Magna Carta was signed. When they get their faces out of screens, I wonder if the young are taught the importance of this vital key to history …

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Day 12: Marlow to Eton

Trust No One I have just read a remarkable book, The Great Post Office Scandal by Nick Wallis. The Post Office, that core member of the establishment – slightly dull, yet a deeply respected British institution – prosecuted around 900 sub-postmasters for theft, false accounting and fraud. After a vast court case, it was found that 99 …

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Day 11: Henley to Marlow

Dry and a beautiful walk. Chains of pleasure boats. I wonder if I would be bored on a boat. I think I would be. I was going blind recently. Seriously I was unable to read, and it got worse quickly. Then a consultant in Oxford lasered my eyes; once I was blind, and now I …

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Day 10: Reading to Henley

Queen Elizabeth is dead: Long live King Charles 111 Sad day and a great loss of a magnificent woman. The only time I met her was unfortunate. As a Scots Guards officer, I was asked to go to Dane in Holyrood to dance with Edinburgh maidens, Highland reels are a sort of war, not a …

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Day 9: Streatley to Reading

The Scots call it “drookit”, and that is good enough for me. We were drenched in a proper downpour. We went from drought to Noah’s Ark in a single hour. Neither Jane nor I mind walking in the rain, as we were brought up in the Scottish Borders and in Edinburgh, that is what one …

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Day 8: Rest Day

The Limits of Forgiveness How can we offer forgiveness on behalf of people we don’t know or have never even met? The famous Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal illustrated this with a story that began on 10 October 1944. At the time, he was a young architect incarcerated in Janowska Concentration Camp, just …

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Day 7: Shillingford to Streatley

Woke World Napoleon said that you should never disturb your enemy when he’s making a gross mistake. Why do our enemies, such as Jihadists, Putin and the man in North Korea with the funny haircut, bother to bomb or poison us in the UK when we are making such a good job of destroying ourselves? …

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Day 6: Abingdon to Shillingford

Name Dropping With apologies to Mark Twain, I have been involved in many startling events in my time – some of which actually happened! On 10 April 1994, I took tea with Mother Teresa. She had heard from a friend that I knew the Minister of Housing (I did), with whom she wanted a meeting. …

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Day 5: Port Meadow to Abingdon

Talked to Jacqui on the way and she is a delightful English teacher from Oxford. She tells me her mother is a ZANE supporter and she wondered what else her Mum might do to help the cause? I suggested she might leave a large chunk of her estate to ZANE. Jacqui looked thoughtful. A long …

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