There is nothing quite like a dispute over inheritance to bring out the worst in families or amongst friends or other benefactors if there is perceived unfairness. The deceased may have thought hard about the reasons for the way the estate is to be apportioned, and may have seen the needs or behaviours of others…

There are times when I can be remarkably practised in the art of selective amnesia. It is easy to remember things in the past that were happy or good times or when I did well at something; it is less easy to recall those times when I failed or made a fool of myself. There…

Most of us will have had the experience of being thoroughly uncomfortable when reading or listening to something that seems aimed directly at us. The old idiom, ‘if the cap fits, wear it’ means that if something feels true then take it in good part together with what follows. This verse from Jude is direct,…

You may be aware of the saying ‘people in glass houses should not throw stones’; it is a warning against hypocrisy. When your name is Glasse, it becomes quite personal, particularly if, like me, you went through your school years being called by your last name. Hypocrisy is a trap easily fallen into, something that…

When I was a child, for several years, we spent our family summer holidays at Hope Cove in South Devon. Recently we have returned on several occasions and old loves and fascinations for a delightful village and coastline have been reawakened. The signpost to the Hope Cove car parking arrangements is a wonderful summary of…

The shootings in Plymouth recently will have given rise to many different emotions amongst us. The BBC headline asking the question, ‘Who were the Victims’ is raising an important issue. When acts of violence or terror occur, on any scale, there are direct victims and indirect victims. Beyond these people, others will have felt something…

We were fortunate to have tickets to an open-air performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream staged in Framlingham Castle this week. Doors opened at 6pm for a 7.30 performance to allow time to picnic. I looked at the set for Shakespeare’s well-known play, performed over so many years in all sorts of places. I contemplated…

Last summer this rose put on so much growth and the blooms were so heavy that several the vine wires that support it were broken. In the winter I was determined to get the better of it; the renewed wires are stronger and from the outset the necessary support was in place so the flowers…

A few years ago, we were privileged to spend a few hours in a small boat in the Atlantic, off the Azores, watching whales. It was the end of the season, there was a good swell and with hindsight, we may have been insane to take the risk. One of my memories of being an…

But there are walls that keep us all divided;we fence each other in with hate and war.Fear is the bricks-and-mortar of our prison,our pride of self the prison coat we wear.           Fred Kaan (1929-2009) translated from the Swedish of Anders Frostenson (1906-2006)English translation © 1974 Stainer & Bell Ltd. Hallin Fell is not a significant Wainwright…