BY ROGER WATSON The waiter suggested that I might want to try another restaurant as they had a sixteenth birthday party taking place that evening. He indicated a long table set for about twenty people but, as I had already been seated and had a panoramic view of the Boccadasse harbour in Genoa, I was reluctant to move. Then my heart sank. In walked twenty … Continue reading Eataly*
BY ROGER WATSON Humberside Airport is twenty miles from Hull. Sitting in splendid isolation in the Lincolnshire countryside, it is not exactly a hive of activity. This makes it very endearing. Other than the occasional chartered flight, KLM runs two flights a day to Schiphol and there is a regular stream of helicopters to offshore oilrigs. The Hull City FC owner and Turkish billionaire Acun … Continue reading Blotting My Copybook
BY ROGER WATSON As penitents receive the ashes from a Catholic priest today on Ash Wednesday, the priest says, ‘Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return.’ These days, at least for children and the faint-hearted, the priest may use alternative forms, attenuated so as not to remind people of their ultimate fate. I have no idea what those forms are, but … Continue reading Remember, Man, You Are Dust
BY ROGER WATSON Published under the auspices of the Bruges Group, Green in tooth and claw by Niall McCrae, no stranger to the pages of CSM, is an action packed tour through scams perpetuated by the green movement. This is not a scientific treatise demolishing the green movement, especially its Malthusian ‘zero carbon’ slogan. For that, see Not Zero by Ross Clark. Rather it is … Continue reading Green in Tooth and Claw
BY ROGER WATSON When I heard that Frederick Forsyth’s 1975 novella The Shepherd had been made into a Christmas film, I was uneasy and curious in equal measure. I was captivated by Forsyth’s 1971 The Day of the Jackal, both the book and the original film, but slightly less impressed by The Odessa File published in 1972. However, my mother was a great fan of … Continue reading The Shepherd
BY ROGER WATSON With what could be described as typical German efficiency the technicians had me mic’d up well in advance. I had my jacket taken off and the bottom button of my shirt undone. The wireless relay was attached to the back of my trousers and the wire to the microphone inserted under my shirt and up to the collar where it was clipped … Continue reading Never Trust a Technician
BY ROGER WATSON In China it appears you can take the peasant out of rural areas, but you cannot stop them being a peasant. Early in the last decade China initiated a project to move 250 million people from rural areas to the cities; from shanties and small houses to the high rise apartments that characterise so much of their urban environment. In fact, since … Continue reading Urban Peasants
BY ROGER WATSON It was a few nights before Christmas and I was in Manchester. It was late. I stepped out of the taxi into the cold night air and headed to where the driver had told me the hotel reception was located. I walked into the reception and my spectacles immediately steamed over. The room was very warm and humid. It was clearly a … Continue reading Canal Street
BY ROGER WATSON I had never heard of August Šenoa until a recent visit to Croatia. In the week before my visit, which was my first time in the country, I searched online for Croatian writers. With a preference for modern rather than classical writers, I encountered August Šenoa. My interest in him was heightened by the fact that he came from Zagreb where there … Continue reading August Šenoa
BY ROGER WATSON If anyone reading this can afford it, could they please pay the money to whoever it is who has captured the Roman Catholic Church and is holding it to ransom? This is not the first time my church has appeared on these pages. The past two years have seen an increasing level of politically charged nonsense from CAFOD (Catholic Fund for Overseas … Continue reading Captive Catholics
BY ROGER WATSON I have been to many Edinburgh Military Tattoos. It became ‘Royal’ in 2010. Over the years, since childhood, during my own military service when I took part and subsequently when I continued to live in Edinburgh, I went regularly. I had not been back for nearly 25 years but my youngest son, who is a regular, persuaded me to attend this year. … Continue reading The Edinburgh Tattoo
BY ROGER WATSON On the fiftieth anniversary of the Great Train Robbery, I recalled the fact that I went to school with a kidnapper. And there is a link between the kidnapper and the famous robbery. There can be few who do not know the story of the Great Train Robbery in 1963. I am old enough to remember it as I was eight years … Continue reading My Classmate Was a Kidnapper
BY ROGER WATSON While vegans probably produce enough gas to solve the energy crisis, I am not referring to their flatus. The fact is that the vegan tail is beginning to wag the omnivorous dog. This does not have to be the case. The repeated reminders that food or drink are ‘suitable for vegans’ is nothing more or less than a subtle form of gaslighting. … Continue reading Vegan Gaslighting
BY ROGER WATSON “I just love Chinese culture.” I hear this often from people whose encounter with Chinese culture is limited to a weekly visit to the Yangtze River Chinese restaurant in town or having watched some ‘limited hangout’ documentaries by Michael Palin or Niall Ferguson on the BBC. My inevitable response is, “which aspects of Chinese culture do you like?” and offer them a … Continue reading Cultural Cringe
BY ROGER WATSON ‘That surprises me’ is a response I often get to something I have said or done when I am speaking with friends and relatives who are more left-wing than me. Admittedly, it is not hard to be more left-wing than me, adhering as I do to a set of very traditional and conservative values. I dabbled with left-wing politics as a student. … Continue reading No Surprise Lefties Are Moving Right
BY ROGER WATSON Elif Shafak is a Turkish feminist writer. A contemporary of Turkey’s ‘man of letters’ Orhan Pamuk, and, like Pamuk, persecuted by the present Turkish government, she chooses to live in England. Pamuk, on the other hand, under constant armed guard, chooses to remain in Istanbul. Being an outspoken writer in Turkey is a dangerous business. The topics covered by Shafak are wide … Continue reading The Island of Missing Trees
BY ROGER WATSON My fourteen-year-old grandson is a prolific writer. He blogs regularly on his favourite football team and has graced the pages of this esteemed organ. Progressively, he needs less and less of my editorial input. But in his final blog of the football season he referred to his ‘most favourite’ moment and I smugly pulled him up on that, informing him that he … Continue reading Something What I Learned
BY ROGER WATSON If you have a tendency towards depression, your lifelong marriage is on the rocks or if there are family skeletons that have long been locked up in a cupboard, this is not the film for you. Like most of the films in which he stars these days, this is another ‘Jim Broadbent and some other people’ film, such is the extent to … Continue reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
BY ROGER WATSON Mention the Jade Cabbage to a Taiwanese Chinese person, their eyes will be lowered in reverence and a look of awe will come over their faces. The Jade Cabbage, also known as The Green Jade Cabbage, is the finest exemplar of a jadeite cabbage and it is Taiwan’s most revered artefact. It is housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei and … Continue reading A Very Dangerous Relic
BY ROGER WATSON Now that I am retired and have endless leisure time I can do crazy things like visit art galleries in the morning. Here in Kingston upon Hull we are certainly not spoilt for choice. We have a single gallery in town. Therefore, one visit goes a long way. The Ferens Art Gallery is in the old town of Hull, and we have … Continue reading Desperately Seeking Gays in Hull
