Author Archives: theqbitblogger

It was the best of times , it was the worst of times , it was Financial Times. The opening line from Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities prompted this blog. At Christmas there was a mix up with my direct debit for my FT app which painstakingly I tried to rectify . Alas itContinue reading “Tales from two Cities”

The blogs ‘ What went wrong ‘ and ‘ The Rest of the world ‘ February and April 2023 feature Denis Law who died yesterday aged 84. The fact that I watched him 62 years ago in my first ever football match is perhaps sentimental but there you go. It was at Stamford Bridge homeContinue reading “A Law until himself.”

I recently heard Peter Whittle interview Peter Hitchins ( top photo ) on a podcast. Peter Hitchins is an exceptionally bright individual , journalist, author of 20 books and Daily Mail Columnist. His brother Christopher out of Oxford University was equally highly intelligent with a belligerence that caught my eye shortly before his death inContinue reading “Eternity.”

This field on a cold January morning in Oxfordshire looks picturesque especially as the deer move across its landscape. However not for long as there is an application to build 150 new homes upon it. Britain with 29.9 million dwellings needs another 1.5million homes and the Labour promise is to build 300,000 new homes perContinue reading “Home sweet Home”

Last evening as I sat with my family in our son’s 300 year cottage there was a knock at the door. A tall man stood , the son of the previous owner whose Mother lived there previously. He asked if he could possibly enter to see his Mother’s old home. As he entered sadness cameContinue reading “Reminiscing”

The Chris Rea song of our title blog today is one of my favourites. Red lights on the road a far cry from coach and horses of previous times. Yesterday while driving home for Christmas on the radio came a Tesco radio mobile phone advert wishing us all a Merry Giftmas. The Christ in ChristmasContinue reading “Driving Home for Christmas.”

His mother dies and off he goes to that Victorian workhouse an orphan boy who asks for more food. The ogre berates and the boy goes hungry. Dickens tells of his own experience and his father in debtors prison ends him up in the boot Polish factory. Oliver eventually gets into bad company and crimeContinue reading “Oliver Twist lives on.”

Fagin is one of the villains in Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist (serialized 1837–39) and one of the most notorious anti-Semitic portraits in English literature. He is an old man in London who teaches young homeless boys how to be pickpockets and then fences their stolen goods. Although a miser and exploiter, he shows a certainContinue reading “Fagin”

In the run up to Christmas I’m going to blog on this man Charles Dickens who created over 900 characters in his 15 books so of which are the accompaniment to Christmas. Besides living only 58 years (1812 to 1870 ) what is amazing is that he was not only a prolific writer but aContinue reading “What the Dickens.”

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ The headline chorus of that catchy song Flowers by Miley Cyrus speaks of relationship break up leading to realisation of self protection. ‘ we were right until we weren’t , built a home then watched it burn ‘ . Then in moment of fight back says forget the pain ‘ I can buy myselfContinue reading “‘ I can Love me better.‘”