Tom Baker stepped into the TARDIS in 1974 like some wild-eyed prophet striding out of the desert, scarf trailing behind him like a banner of mad liberation, and – who among us wasn’t hooked? Well, all right, some of you. Those who preferred sensible things like indoor hobbies, stable realities, and cardigans that didn’t threaten to strangle … Continue reading The Scarf, the Priest, and the Holiest of Accidents

Ah, the festive season - a time of joy, merriment, and for me, a period of clumsy, ungainly hobbling, reminiscent of a newborn foal with its legs tied together. It all came flooding back the moment my ankle twinged, bringing with it memories of the weeks I spent awkwardly navigating life with a great, cumbersome … Continue reading Bread Bag..

Christmas, that grand old conjurer of memories, always pulls at my heartstrings like a fiddler on market day — and none more so than the memory of that Christmas. Mind you, I don’t need much encouragement to wallow in nostalgia; I’m as bad as an old maid sighing over her first sweetheart. Picture, if you … Continue reading A Christmas Clanger and the Strip That Stole My Heart

When I was a child, our holidays were never the sun-drenched affairs of the well-heeled, sipping orange Fanta beneath a Mediterranean sky. No, our escapes were humbler, anchored firmly to the rugged North East coast, in the salt-lashed embrace of Cullercoats, near Whitley Bay. We never had the kind of money that could ferry us … Continue reading Bingo!