This is the time of year . . .

     . . .  when I am drawn to express my awe and ecstasy at the beauties yet again showered upon us by Nature – each year more wonderful than the last – and my joy that there are at least some who still feel that these gifts are the sufficient and perfect...

Come to the Fair!

The London International Antiquarian Book Fair may not sound like the obvious place to find contemporary books but in the National Hall at Olympia this year there is a room devoted to what is described as ALSO exhibitors – there you will find Old Stile Press...

something nasty in the woodshed!

This is not, as you might think, one of the deeper dungeons in the Tower of London. It is our woodshed . . . the scene of one of the most important labours of our lives, keeping warm. This morning I had the great pleasure of seeing and reading an exquisite...

Green Man

    Anyone who makes a habit of visiting the Artlog of Clive Hicks-Jenkins (and who on earth does not) will know that the wizard of Ty Isaf has of late been giving lots of little green men a run for their money. Walking across the garden this morning I noticed...

One hundred years ago today

It is difficult to imagine life a hundred years ago when my father, Sir Edward Pickering, was born on this day.  I don’t possess any photographs of him then but the television has been filled with programmes about Titanic and the people aboard in 1912 and the...