When Rick Davies of Supertramp died last month I did what I always do upon a prominent rock’n’ roll passing: I reached to populate my current Bakehouse playlist with my favourite songs of the band. That proved easy in the…
Alan (always known as Al) was my step grandfather. I do have some memories of him but they are very patchy, I was only four when he died. But here is what I know about Al. Al was born in…
Dad originally set up Contour Management Services (CMS) as the vehicle for him and Sue to run the European division of the International Map Trade Association (IMTA) and this was the main source of CMS’s turnover until Dad & Sue…
I have always been keen to visit Dublin. Jane has been there many times on work trips for board meetings where the formal agenda seemed to take a back seat to eating, drinking and general merriment but my single work…
In Mum’s will she left a legacy to The Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth. The Sanctuary was a favourite place of Mum’s and rather than just send a cheque I hatched a scheme with Peter to contact the Legacies Team and…
I first saw The Beths at The End of The Road festival in 2019, early in the day on the main Woods stage. I think Wilf had seen them before, certainly the youthful New Zealand four piece was one of…
My Nan and my Auntie Anne (always “Ant” to me) were largely inseparable, the ultimate sister double act, their lives often appearing in almost exact lockstep. Nan was the elder of the two, born in 1921, Auntie in 1923. Both…
I know very little about my grandfather Ronald Augustus Foster, and Mum equally seemed to know next to nothing about her father. The subject of Nan’s first husband and Mum’s father was just not talked about; he was airbrushed out…
Edith Sophia Cranidge (née Griffin), my great-grandmother, is buried with her mother Eliza Griffin (née Barnett) at North Cemetery at Strouden Avenue in Bournemouth, plot L2 92. Edith died on 8 September 1969 aged 87; she had been living at…
7 Hampton Park was a huge five bedroom grade II listed town house in Cotham Hill, tucked behind Whiteladies Road, set over four floors, with the lower ground floor being a self-contained basement flat, having its own porch and entrance.…