Provence and the neighboring region of Languedoc-Roussillon in the Southf of France are renowned worldwide as a shining haven of hedonism. My wife Vicki and I fell in love with the area during a visit in the summer of 1987 and after a brief search we bought a house in a dwindling village called Saint-Pons-la-Calm in the Languedoc. Like most historic villages in the Rhone region it was built…
My family laughs at my interest in the TV series ‘Ancient Aliens’, shown regularly on the History Channel in my area. It has national US and some European distribution. A recent episode included a segment on Gobekli Tepe, an archeological site in eastern Turkey, which I found quite fascinating, so I hope this will explain and excuse a diversion from my normal range of subjects in this blog. Part…
My family has an early connection to Oz in the person of Nathaniel Lucas, a cousin many generations removed who arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 on the First Fleet. The continent had been discovered and claimed by Captain Cook during his circumnavigation, but was completely unexplored when the British Government decided, on the basis of zero knowledge of suitability, to appoint Captain Philip as Governor in charge…
This week’s episode relates the romantic details of a highly unusual love story. How many girls select their future husband at the age of seven? My Scottish maternal grandfather Colonel Herbert Brander CB spent his entire career in the Indian Army with the 32nd Sikh Pioneers, rising to be its Commandant. (His adventurous story is told in my book “Waziristan to Tibet” which is available from Barnes & Noble.)…