Eliminative Materialism
BY SEAN WALSH The Devil’s science? The philosophers who believe there are no beliefs. Paul Feyerabend did not think consciousness is a thing. “Is our basic conception of human cognition and agency yet another myth, moderately useful in the past perhaps, yet false at edge or core?” – Paul M. Churchland Paul Feyerabend Eliminative materialists are the philosophers who claim that consciousness does not exist. This seems … Continue reading Eliminative Materialism
The Woman Who Brought Illusion Back to Life
BY JANE HARVEY An Interview with Cheryl Anita Miller at Bengaluru’s Most Unusual Museum A Place That Refuses to Sit Still BANGALURU — There are museums one walks through politely, hands clasped behind the back, pausing briefly before each work. And then there are places like the Miller Museum of Anamorphic Art, where standing still is quite useless. Tucked away on Carlston Road in Cooke … Continue reading The Woman Who Brought Illusion Back to Life
The Woman With the Iron Legs
BY DENE BEBBINGTON Thirty years ago, when Beryl Burton passed away at the age of 58 while on her bike, my own cycling days were already over. Nearing 30, I’d spent too many hours sitting at a computer, and the convenience of owning a car had left my muscles and willpower weak. Had I tried to cycle with Beryl—even in her late 50s—I’d have been … Continue reading The Woman With the Iron Legs
Ponzi, Panzer, and Plunder
BY PAUL T HORGAN The ‘Guilty Men’ narrative in the Britain of July 1940 was a necessary myth. The state had given itself such massive powers in the wake of the Dunkirk evacuation as to be a revolution from above, so a superficially credible legend had to be created, as is the case for all revolutions, to justify the legal appropriation of so many traditional liberties. The rapid German … Continue reading Ponzi, Panzer, and Plunder
The Way and the Truth
BY ANDREW MILNE ‘What is Truth?’ Pontius Pilate said at the trial of Christ. Pilate appears in all four gospels. Traditionally, the church has expressed a certain sympathy for the hapless Prefect of Judea. What is Truth, indeed? The question is apposite to our own time when truth is widely regarded as subjective. This means truth can be whatever you want it to be. What is … Continue reading The Way and the Truth
A Prayer for Easter Sunday
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust this Easter Sunday finds you in reflective spirits, perhaps with the first light of dawn breaking over the fields and the promise of spring stirring in the hedgerows. There is something profoundly hopeful about an Easter morning, isn’t there? The daffodils are nodding their golden heads, the lambs are testing unsteady legs in the meadows, and the … Continue reading A Prayer for Easter Sunday
Masham Cider Press
BY ALLISON LEE Tim Barker started pressing apples for juice and cider with a friend way back in 2015. What initially began as a hobby steadily grew into an annual tradition in which the two would harvest apples from local trees and hedges and press them along with those donated by well-meaning people. As the years progressed, the two friends honed their skills, acquired equipment, … Continue reading Masham Cider Press
An American Who Became a Football Fan
BY DAVID CAMPBELL I hail from Western Pennsylvania, that fertile crescent of gridiron greatness known to Wikipedia as the Cradle of Quarterbacks. Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Joe Namath—the list runs to three dozen and more. There are probably more professional American football players from those few counties than from anywhere else on earth. I grew up in the era of the Pittsburgh Steelers … Continue reading An American Who Became a Football Fan
The Farm
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The town thinks the British farmer was born to be ruled. They imagine him touching his forelock. They see him shuffling aside for the lord’s carriage. Nothing could be further from the truth. The British farmer did not inherit the land. He won it. And he has had to win it again in every century since the first plough bit the soil. … Continue reading The Farm
Scarecrow Wins Election
BY TOBIAS GRUB ‘Reginald’ – Straw-Stuffed Independent Takes 63% of Vote on Anti-Pigeon, Anti-Party Ticket LITTLE PIDDLECOMBE, DEVON – In what is being described as the most shocking upset in Devon politics for years, a scarecrow erected outside Piddlecombe Village Hall has been elected to the parish council. “Reginald” – a burlap-headed figure dressed in a moth-eaten tweed waistcoat and one broken welly – stood as … Continue reading Scarecrow Wins Election
The Dragon-Slayer of Ponders End
BY JACK LANG You have to understand the type. In Kipling’s India, you would meet him at a hill station, a man who would explain the local customs to you very slowly, as if you were a mildly defective coolie. He had a small moustache, a smaller sense of humour, and a profound belief that the universe would reorganise itself if only everyone filled out … Continue reading The Dragon-Slayer of Ponders End
Wildwood Trust’s Wolf Bloodbath
BY ALEXIA JAMES A Failure of Conservation: Wildwood Trust’s Wolf Pack Pay the Ultimate Price for Captivity The recent announcement from Wildwood Trust, near Herne Bay, that it euthanised its entire wolf pack is being framed as a tragic inevitability—a “heartbreaking decision” forced by the breakdown of the pack’s social dynamics. But to accept this narrative without question is to ignore the fundamental cruelty inherent … Continue reading Wildwood Trust’s Wolf Bloodbath
A Prayer for Home
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust this Sunday finds you in good spirits, perhaps with the last of the morning mist still clinging to the valley and the kettle just coming to the boil. There is a particular hush to a Sunday morning, isn’t there? A sense that the world has paused for a moment, allowing us to draw breath before the gentle … Continue reading A Prayer for Home
Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary
BY ALLISON LEE Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary started in 2009 when Alexandra Smith recognised a growing need for a safe, permanent place for injured, orphaned, sick and displaced wildlife in the local area. Alexandra’s journey began when she started volunteering at her local veterinary practice and chose to care for two pigeons that needed long-term care. As most veterinary practices are unable to house wild animals … Continue reading Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary
The Hormuz War
BY PAUL T HORGAN The news from what is being described as the ‘Iran War’ is that there is no news, well none about the actual fighting. This is normal. A study of war reporting, especially of the wartime periodicals that would emerge for every major conflict up to WWII, demonstrates that the actualité of the combat would take at least several days if not weeks or … Continue reading The Hormuz War
Wasgij
BY NICHOLAS ENGERT It is at once nonsensical but utterly pleasurable. And it is this pastime which has stolen my leisure, not to mention my writing time, during the past two months. I of course blame my younger son who, inventively, gave us a rather charming jigsaw for Christmas. It is not as if we do not have a cupboard full of the darn things … Continue reading Wasgij
The Fragile Raft
BY ALEX STORY By Munich, on the Isar, a fast-moving river, every summer, mostly in the sun, hundreds of large rafts float down one after the other, transported by the stream. Each carries up to forty people, a sausage & beer stand, and a music band. Men wear lederhosen, women dirndl, the traditional dress that shows just enough to make you wonder but too little … Continue reading The Fragile Raft
The North for Greatness
BY DEREK TURNER Lancashire: Exploring the Historic County that made the Modern World In his classic 1902-1904 Collecteana, folklorist Vincent Stuckey Lean cites a proverb which has since passed into cliché – “Lancashire thinks today what all England will think tomorrow”. Travel writer Chris Moss’s task in this highly personal book is to show how his home county helped make modern England – and so … Continue reading The North for Greatness
Wittgenstein, Popper and the Poker
BY SEAN WALSH The scene. From time to time the dialectic gets feisty and on rare occasions almost physical. A meeting of the Cambridge 1946 Moral Science Club, according to some of those present, was one such occasion. Note that recollections differ, as they say1. What might have happened is this: the very intense Ludwig Wittgenstein threatened the visiting speaker, Karl Popper, with a fire poker, in the course … Continue reading Wittgenstein, Popper and the Poker
Keep Them Hanging
CSM EDITORIAL There is a rhythm to the countryside that city clocks do not measure. It is marked not by the chime of the hour, but by the turn of the season, the rise of the beck, and the quiet, relentless work of those who manage the land. For generations, that rhythm has included a practice that, to the uninitiated, might appear jarring: the row … Continue reading Keep Them Hanging