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The world’s first civilizations, in 3500 BC, were often called riverine cultures. Mesopotamia, ‘the land between the rivers’ and those on the Nile typify these. Riverine [...]

The post arrived today, reminding me that bulb catalogue fever is a seasonal ailment. Impulse buying is not my weakness, except when it comes to plants. I look at the gleaming catalogue photos [...]

Perhaps, like me, you occasionally think you are falling apart. Then you read a report in the paper and you suddenly realise you are okay; everybody else is nuts! The report that an MP has called [...]

I just love growing lilies. The blousiness, the exotic odour, the haughty demeanor, all the things that I am not. Perhaps this contrast between a gardener and his favourite flowers has a deep [...]

We writers, when we are planning to write a book, keep an ear to the ground. A few years ago, the pundits told us to avoid misery memoirs like the plague, no publisher wants or is interested in [...]

I have to admit I include a dog joke in my forthcoming book about prehistory. Zuri, my pagan ancestor, aware of all these dogs on our beaches, asks me when they are ready to eat. In truth, [...]

Flint powered the first industrial age might be a slight exaggeration. Yet, this amazing mineral was a vital commodity to early peoples. It was used to make tools like axes, arrow and spear [...]

Chalk is familiar to us in the white cliffs of Dover. They are notable because chalk is relatively rare around the world and gives our island a unique appearance. The use of chalk from the [...]

My pagan ancestor Zuri is published and comes alive today, five years after she was conceived. She will burst into the world and, in her quiet and unassuming way, will show the planet what women [...]

I love the sea and its ever changing perspectives. For certain, hardly a day passes that I don’t look out and across the bay to The Needles. All that light, ozone and clear air; no wonder [...]