February 2023

  • Steam Trains to the Milky Way…

    ….or Troon. But certainly not by LNER to Reading You can read the text below, or listen to me reading it accompanied by a dozen pieces of music that fit loosely with this week’s theme, which is…trains. Railways, steam engines and the permanent way generally. Music by Danny Wilson, The Clash, the Doobie Brothers, the…

  • Forgetting, remembering…and fighting the cuts, one bottle of long-life milk at a time

    As spring starts to wink knowingly at us, I’m heading south for a bit Here’s my weekly newsletter/audioletter. Read it, listen on Mixcloud or hear it as a show on 60 North Radio, 7-8pm on Fridays. The playlist and Mixcloud link are at the end of the text . Spring has been tentatively peeking through…

  • Samuel Pepys and the Massacre of Ronas Voe

    A ruined house, a Shetland holiday cottage and the grave of 300 Dutch sailors and soldiers. British war crimes in Shetland 350 years ago. And 12 songs to go. The audioletter for 10 February 2022. Listen to it read with 12 half-decent intervening tunes (Big Dish, PJ Moore, Richard Thompson, Jenny Lewis, Beth Orton, Sharon…