BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD “Mrs Daddywood”, called Reggie. “What is for supper?” “Oysters, Mr Reggie”, replied Mrs Daddywood. “Oysters! How splendid. Ostend or Whitstable?” Mrs Daddywood examines the packet trying to muddle together a response. “It says sum’thing ‘bout Belgium, luv”. “Oh, there you have it. Ostend. Crikey. They had a rough time of it during the war”, mumbled Reggie to himself. “Now, Mrs Daddywood. … Continue reading Reggie Reads Sartre
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Reggie stabbed at the bell. “Mrs Daddywood!” “Morning, Mr Reggie. There is a letter here for you, pet. I’ll be there in one sec.” “Oh rather, let’s be having it,” said Reggie as he concealed the Hendrick’s and cucumber behind the Edwardian ‘plum pudding’ mahogany centre table. Reggie was still a tad squiffy after last night’s escapade at the Ath., but … Continue reading Reggie goes to Encaenia
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Chewing the cud about something or other, Reggie peered out of the sash window, arousing the curiosity of the last of the ewes. He was breakfasting late. The Biedermeier wall clock reminded him of as much. Reggie was feeling idle, and had no intention of dispensing with the dressing gown just yet. The art of life was to be fancy-free after … Continue reading What?! Civil War?
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD It is no secret that the recent local election results were catastrophic for the Labour Party. Of course, this comes as no big surprise. Labour’s policies are bankrupting the country. Yields on UK government bonds show that the market has lost trust in Britain. More or less everything is impoverished, broken or dysfunctional. Britain has become a bloated welfare state whose … Continue reading Give Oxford, Cambridge and Camden What They Voted For
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Let’s face a few difficult facts, the kind of facts that trigger that ever so British response: “Oh, well, we had best talk about something else” (before ‘heating the pot’ in the hope of redirecting the conversation to less saturnine matters). Over a short period of time, our country has become in parts unrecognisable. The apple orchards have been replaced with … Continue reading The Unforgiveable Scarring of Britain
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Reggie’s uncle, the Earl of Bitchfield, had become a backwoodsman. His days were numbered. The last of the remaining hereditary peers were on the chopping block. Centuries of skilful statecraft, high intrigue, prudence and inter-generational wisdom had been replaced by the get-rich-quick, affluent tom-toms and a motley crew of DEI merchants. Oh, the joys of ‘inclusion’. The doors had been opened … Continue reading Changing of the Guard
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is the Underground Man Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground is the pseudonymous monologue of a spiteful and bitter former government official who inherited a sufficient amount of money not to need to work again and devoted his life to vice. Dostoyevsky’s philosophical novella is concerned with the hypothetical utopia where all of man’s needs are met, where everything is safe … Continue reading The Underground Man
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD READ BY STEPHEN: “Mrs Daddywood, are you there?”, shouted Reggie from the comfort of the giltwood and red silk damask Tatham, Bailey & Sanders chaise longue. “Just a minute, luv”, said Mrs Daddywood as she came charging down the corridor. “Oh, there you are. How splendid. Now, Mrs Daddywood, why don’t you take a seat? By golly, Mrs Daddywood…”. He paused … Continue reading A Mild Scrape with the Banter Bill
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Erik the Red famously named Greenland as such in the 10th century in order to persuade people to settle there. Greenland is one big sheet of ice, and the only thing green about it is the colour of the vast meltwater lakes that sit on top of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the summer months. But, don’t take it from me. … Continue reading All that Glitters is not Green
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD The Soviet dissident and intellectual, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, famously said: “to destroy a people, you must first sever their roots”. Solzhenitsyn spent eight years in a Gulag for criticising Stalin and knew a thing or two about ideology, hard labour and anti-Soviet propaganda. Today, in a different time, geography and ideology entirely, our own Prime Minister seems to be waging war on … Continue reading Once again, We are Living in Solzhenitsynesque Times
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Reggie pranced around the sitting room in old Uncle Teddy’s peignoir. ‘Now, where is that dash rifle of mine?’, he muttered angrily. ‘Enough of this absurd woke nanny-state nonsense trying to consign our innocent school-boy japes to history’, he huffed. The front door clunk shut. It was the housekeeper. ‘Good morning, Mr Reggie’, offered Mrs Daddywood cheerily. She opened the door … Continue reading What Next for the Woke Nanny State?
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Digital ID will mean crossing the Rubicon “Alea iacta est”, huffed Reggie as he took the last bite of his dripping crumpet. “Alea iacta est, alea iacta est”. “You wot my dear”, retorted the Housekeeper, Mrs Daddywood. “Alea iacta est”, (‘the die is cast’) – it is what Julius Caesar said when he crossed the Rubicon in defiance of the Senate. … Continue reading Alea Iacta Est
Dear Readers, Digital ID represents the most shocking assault on civil liberties the UK has ever seen and surely contravenes Article 8 (rights to privacy) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Digital ID is not the same as an ID card: these are two fundamentally different things. Britons already have ID: passports, National Insurance numbers, Birth Certificates etc. Instead, Digital ID sets out … Continue reading Digital ID Should Terrify Everyone
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Some years ago, a colleague of mine was interviewing prospective undergraduates for entrance to Cambridge. He had just finished the interviews for ASNC (Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic) – yes, there is such a subject – when the telephone rang. It was the Admissions Tutor at one of the most prestigious, ancient Colleges that make up the University of Cambridge: “We need … Continue reading Good or Evil
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Having spent the best part of an afternoon amidst betting shop habitués, Reggie decided to call it a day and cadged a lift from the races back to town. Poor Reggie had placed what was left of his student loan on Freedom of Speech at Risk and the filly finished plum last. ‘It all seems rather prophetic’, mumbled the Very Rev’d … Continue reading A Visit from the ‘Boys’ in Blue
BY JAMIE FOSTER Stephen Pax Leonard’s Noble Sentiments for an Exile and Other Writings is a captivating collection of travelogues, vignettes, and lyrical essays that transport the reader to the remote corners of northern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Leonard’s writing is deeply evocative, skillfully blending personal experiences, historical context, and philosophical reflections to create a rich mix of sound, place, and memory. The … Continue reading Noble Sentiments for an Exile
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD ‘What do you chaps get up to at Club?’, asked Don as he/she/it/they passed the shaving bowl to Reggie. Don who had previously been known as Doreen until she discovered Uncle Ted’s wife-beaters came from a long line of Oxford scouts, serving gentlemen through thick and thin. The late grandmother had even served on the ‘Dons’ staircase’. But, this was the … Continue reading Fīat Iūstitia Ruat Cælum
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Will we ever see the likes of David Niven again? It is a fair question to ask, isn’t it now that the new moralism has become absolutely hegemonic. Not so many years ago, I remember well a luncheon at Cambridge. I had just taken up a Fellowship at one of the more ancient Colleges at a time when the ‘silent cultural … Continue reading ‘The Moon is a Balloon’ or is it?
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Stephen Pax Leonard is Research Professor at Moscow State Linguistic University. Educated at Oxford and the Sorbonne, he previously held positions at Oxford and Cambridge. A writer, linguist and traveller, he is the author of six other books on the Arctic and sub-Arctic region. Lucky for us, Stephen occasionally writes for Country Squire Magazine and his articles can be found here. Stephen’s … Continue reading Annals of Solitude
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD The sky was tawny; the late afternoon frosty and brittle. The fields crunched as the shooting party of Byronic heroes walked across the spines of the hills enjoying some light-hearted repartee. Percy cum-Banter had spent the day on a shoot on the Scottish borders. Not one of those ghastly commercial shoots with appalling practices of burying birds at the end of … Continue reading In the Company of Gentlemen
