Only Misplaced

We’ve got bats and liked them, until the regulations made us regret our tolerance of them as the bills and complications mounted. Sitting with a glass of wine in our small courtyard in Wiltshire and watching the bats swoop from their nesting places was a real pleasure. We’d even drag friends out from summer dinners to watch the acrobats in action. We liked the bats. But now I fear that our experience has left everyone who has heard our tale determined to eradicate any bats they find and to tell nobody. That’s not good for conservation and it’s all down to an obsessive over-regulation that puts the interests of bats over those of humans and scarcely compromises at all. When we bought our house 25 years ago, we knew that one part of the property had bats in it, probably as a resting spot for Greater Horseshoe. When we carried out some conversion work on that part of the building, we abided by the restrictions that then applied - restricting work to the winter months. Quite volunt...

I want to die with the little dignity I have intact.  I have become increasingly frustrated by the sober and respectful debate about assisted dying. While everyone seems to be acting from the best possible motives (at least by their own lights), the issue that concerns me and so many of my friends and acquaintances is being ignored. My greatest fear – and it is shared by so many old people – is not that I die in pain from an incurable illness and suffer for months. That’s an awful prospect but only relatively rarely does it become a reality. My greatest fear is that I live without dignity, an incontinent, gibbering burden on my nearest and dearest. That a very real prospect for many of us. For many of those who have witnessed a slide into such a status for those they loved and respected, that fear is close to terror. The assisted dying debate proponents dare not extend their argument because their perceived weakness is ‘the slippery slope’. As a result, a very real issue is bei...

I retired in late 2016. I also retired in November 2018. I am still working. I am 72 next week. That conundrum reflects a likely pattern for the future. The massive increase in working from home and remote working means never having to retire - or at least make it a less appealing prospect. It certainly removes the need for a big bang, 'that's it, I'm off to the golf course' retirement. For me, after 35 years of working from home - essentially in a freelance capacity, I had three main sources of income. Three different main clients with different demands. Once I reached a stage in life where I didn't need quite so much money and found my ability to work long hours was reducing, I decided to step away from being the Editorial Coordinator of Blackstone's Criminal Practice, which took up about 40% of my working time, including an intense batch of activity that usually left me exhausted and (reportedly) difficult to live with. Two years later, I decided I wanted to ...

INTRODUCTION In 2019, my wife, Hazel, and I walked the Camino de Santiago, the ancient 800 km pilgrimage trail across Northern Spain. It was a wonderful experience that has left me with many happy memories. Most people who come back from the Camino and write about it focus on the positives. I have no idea why the following (entirely fictional) dark tale occurred to me but, as I seem to have hit a block on its further development (I had intended to do further research on the ground), I thought I would share it with those with 20 minutes to spare. THE STORY I am an independent producer of documentaries for television. What follows is an edited transcript of a programme screened on RTE, a major Spanish television channel, and, in adapted form, the UK’s Channel 4. It is followed by a curious reaction to the programme that has turned our thinking upside-down and led to further, very frustrating, enquiries.  Part One  The sensational reporting of the recent deaths on the Camino Fr...

This walk allows for a range of different starting points and thus a range of distances. The longest version assumes a start at the Lansdowne Arms and is approximately 7 miles, there and back. The shortest option, starting from the Dumb Post at Bremhill, offers a walk only 4 miles long. The furthest point is the monument to Maud Heath beyond Bremhill and the ideal timing aims for a picnic beneath the monument. There is some road walking and some footpaths can be muddy. Dog walkers and others may wish to note that some of the walk passes through fields where you may encounter cows. 1.       From the Lansdowne Arms, turn left down Church Road until reaching the footpath on the left just before the Derry Hill school gates. The school was built in 1872 to replace an existing building deemed inadequate though that ‘inadequate’ building had been erected only 30 years earlier – perhaps the Victorians’ frugality has been exaggerated as one cannot imagine waiting such...

I recently put together instructions for a local walk for publication in the parish magazine and on the Calne Without parish council website. For the tiny minority of readers of my blog who might visit the local area, here it is. If you read it here and intend to do the walk, tea and biscuits at mine are an extra reward. Circular 6 mile walk, mainly through Bowood Estate  This walk just about allows you to stay within the boundaries of Calne Without but stretches your legs and includes some lovely countryside, especially on the path through Bowood. It is just over 6 miles (nearly 7 if you start from the Lansdowne Arms).   1a Start at the Black Dog Inn/Gurkha Baynjan Restaurant on the A4 (now a fine Nepalese restaurant but still with a public bar), where there is ample car parking and an opportunity for a pre-walk coffee or a post-walk pint, or, for locals, start from your own home.   1b It is also possible, and perhaps more appropriate given the amount of Lansdo...