There was no serious tradition of cider-making in New Zealand [where the author lived for several years before returning to Dorset]. I pretty much gave up drinking cider there, as it was usually too sweet. Though I love to drink cider, West Country cider-making is something I knew little about. I probably know more about […]
“Did you see them? Aurora Borealis? The Northern Lights?” I hesitate: “Yes, and no.” “How does that work?” I will explain, but first things first. We don’t ‘do’ cruises, but we made an exception for this holiday, on the basis that to see the Norwegian fjords up close, you probably need to be on a […]
A few years ago, we broke a flight to Australia with a short stopover in Singapore. It was Halloween when we arrived and impossible not to know it. Bright orange pumpkins, black silhouettes of bats and tangles of giant spiders’ webs had invaded public spaces, shops and restaurants. It was the same plastic tat as […]
As the ferry crossed from Oban on the west coast of Scotland to the Isle of Mull, we were shadowed by a pod of porpoises, their dark grey backs gleaming as they leapt, arching from the water. Further out we saw gannets fishing; beautiful big white birds, they fold their long, pointed, black-tipped wings against […]
Most of those registered to vote do not want a Conservative Government, yet they keep getting elected! How does this happen? Democracy campaigner and author of The Tory Winning Machine, Adam Herriott, explores the reasons. The Conservative Party has always been the party of the rich and powerful. The Tory Party operates to form governments that […]
Names – the most central element of our persona and self-esteem, argues Mike Zollo. If you think about it, our own name is our most vital possession, the very core of our being – the root of our identity and our self-esteem, both of which can be impacted, positively or negatively. In a BBC article […]
I have used this definition several times in the last few weeks, triggered by the government’s policy towards ‘Boat People’, the Rwanda policy, refusal to take appropriate action in respect of Afghans, the treatment of the Windrush people, and so on. Spending a few weeks in Spain (which is by no means a perfect country) […]
In the UK, it’s estimated that there around 1.8 million of us who ride horses regularly. Some will never venture further than an indoor school or arena. Others will have instant access to fields and bridleways, but for many of us, the only way to access the countryside or to get our horses fit without […]
You don’t need to be a linguist to appreciate verbal humour, from the silliest schoolchild pun to the subtlest word play. Sometimes, the most amusing verbal humour is unintended, resulting from mis-translation or misinterpretation. In my family this sort of thing is known as ‘plagways’… and this word has now actually achieved dictionary status as […]
Note: Names have been changed to protect identity. Ed. After seven years of abuse and apathy, I’ve called time on my local campaign against Brexit. Beyond the bubble They call it reaching “beyond the bubble”. The key to successful campaigning, say social media experts, is to win over new groups of supporters beyond those naturally […]
Training young As soon as I got home from my primary school – if the weather was OK – I would meet up with my friend Norman to go train spotting at the railway line, which was about a mile away. I was very proud of my Ian Allen Trainspotters booklet, with so many venerable […]
The terrifying, chaotic incompetence of the last ten days in the UK is characteristic of a failing state, says Andrew Levi – a veteran of numerous hair-raising disintegrations of order around the world – in a long read. Feeling able to pretend we’re immune from such disaster is a luxury only available because, imperfect though […]
A review of town twinning schemes after Covid… and Brexit Over the past year or so, WCV has published articles which demonstrate clearly the degree to which Brexit is having a negative impact on educational and cultural contacts between the UK and the EU… It’s almost as if this is a conscious policy of this […]
It was probably due to World War Two and the British servicemen returning from Italy that interest in Italian food began to take off in the UK… as immortalised by Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers. As regards pasta, in the 1950s one had to shop at International Stores or J Sainsbury to buy macaroni and […]
I originally posted this rather long thread on Twitter. If you think it too long to read, the summary is that reversing QE could be the recipe for an absolute economic disaster. All the debt issues by the government to pay for Covid – about £450 billion of it – was in effect bought by the […]
Has there ever been a British government this rotten, this out of touch with the public and this much of a danger to British democracy, public well-being and our international reputation? Judge for yourself as we take you on a whirlwind tour of the highs and lows of 2021, a year many of us might […]
During the medieval period, the grand estate known as Kingston Lacy was part of a royal estate within the manor of Wimborne in Dorset. The manor house stood to the north of the present palazzo, close to a deer park. Supporters of the Crown were allowed to let the estate. After it was sold at […]
A recent West Country Voices article on the joys of mountain biking on Dartmoor reminded me how slow we have been to develop some pretty obvious cycling routes. The one that nags at me is the railway track from Yelverton to Princetown, disused since the line was closed 65 years ago. It is, sadly, not […]
Swapping scouse for pasties, misguidedly dissing Dartmoor and a stroll up the Cowsic. When I was 28 work took me from Merseyside to Cornwall: I traded a lively metropolis with easy access to the mountains of Wales and the north west, for the dramatic, breathtakingly-beautiful coastal scenery and pristine sandy beaches of the West Country. […]
On 10 June and 29 June 2021 we published a pair of articles highlighting the lack of engagement by Somerset County Council Highways Department with those seeking to develop rural cycle paths. We turned the spotlight on local ambitions for a short extension to a path near Wells which offered a useful commuter route to […]
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report published on 9 August 2021 was clear: “Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying” The Guardian’s verdict on the IPCC report: “As a verdict on the climate crimes of humanity, the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report could not be clearer: guilty as hell. The repeatedly-ignored […]
Brownsea is a small island at the entrance to Poole Harbour in Dorset. In the past it has been vital to the defence of the harbour and Poole itself. Originally the island was owned by the church and under the auspices of Cerne Abbey but it was claimed by Henry VIII when he dissolved the […]
I realised a few weeks back that I’ve been riding bikes off-road, in one form or another, for well over four decades. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of a friend’s older brother rescuing rusty bikes from skips and the local scrapyard, and repurposing them as cow-horn-barred “tracker” bikes which we’d spend the summer […]
This artice came out of West Country Byline’s recent online event on the true cost of cheap food. You can listen to the session here: A list for change We are ordinary people facing the huge wealth of the 1 per cent and the power of the state in an assumed democracy which is in […]
In Parts One and Two of this Cycle-paths series, we covered the subject of cycle routes, both on and off-road, for commuting and for leisure. However, ‘leisure’ can be a misnomer where the physical effort to cover distances and climb hills is concerned. If you, Dear Reader, feel a degree of cynicism stemming from concern […]
Everything seems to pop up nowadays – restaurants, shops, bars, campsites. But a glamping campsite? I was not sure about that. However, I was willing to give it a try and set off for Pop-Up Somerset in the depths of rural Somerset. Pop-Up Campsites Visions of compost toilets and bucket showers played in my mind […]
“Boris Johnson ‘obsessed’ with encouraging cycling” “Cycling is a top priority in Prime Minister’s drive to tackle obesity in fight against Covid-19 in the UK.” So said Cyclist magazine on 15 May 2020, adding that “Boris Johnson believes that the coronavirus crisis presents the perfect opportunity to ‘get Britain on its bike’ to enable social distancing […]
Cae Hir is one of the most beautiful gardens I have visited and if you ever get the chance to see it, I would absolutely recommend you go. It sits on the side of the valley of the little Bran river, near Lampeter (Llanbedr Pont Steffan) in west Wales.
