Letter from A. Broad

It is the first time we have seen such an acknowledgment from a festival and it seems fitting that it should occur here where the emphasis has always been on the heavy lifting that it takes to be a cinematographer and to make movies. The yellow-vested stage hands arrive carrying three sofas and the recipients of this year’s gold frogs and tadpoles come to sit alongside those who have made this yea...

‘Yes Minister’ first aired on the BBC television in 1980 until it ended in 1988, possibly due to the fact that it was becoming harder to distinguish the comedy series from the nightly news casts that followed. Among the many quotes attributed to the Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey is “Minister there is going to be and Inquiry” to which the reply from the Prime Minister Jim Hacker is “Oh good, then...

While waiting and watching Walter sign a new edition of his old ‘Blink’ book I am gently surrounded by the young people who are there for us. They hover like bees finding a new flower but instead it is I who take from them, as each has a story, and war, government policies, and economic hardships feature in every one. 

Coming home from the market, and thinking about what to write for this weekend letter - focusing on the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences that take place in September and October - but while I was plucking carrots, choosing cheese and walnuts - another war exploded. Israel was attacked from The Gaza strip by Hamas in the biggest attack for fifty years.

Chris’s family along with the police are not alone in their mistrust of the government. This next weekend the Conservatives are holding their Annual Party Conference in Manchester. Which is a bit rude - to put it mildly - where the main item on the agenda is the closing down of the continued construction of the High-speed Rail link that travels from London to Birmingham and is scheduled to go to M...

There were as many European Union flags and berets in the audience as their were Union Jacks. Members of the Government are asking for another investigation by the BBC but it could be - that just like the late Queen before them - with her clear message hat, the people are speaking calling for a greater self than just this treasured Isle.

‘Ello darlin’” He calls to me, having long forgotten my name and it being too old a friendship to ask to be reminded. And we chat, about this, that, the other, and loneliness. A kiss is always welcome. The last time I saw Jim he was walking slowly with his cane, going to the bus stop for the aforementioned 168 bus on his way to The Royal Free Hospital in South End Green where the bus stops right o...

“It came to me last night, we are bit like ancient oak trees, a bit bent and gnarled, but the inner strength keeps us going. So from one Oak tree to another, take care of your roots and branches but wave your leaves merrily into the air whenever you get the chance.”

Salman Rushdie took a quote from ‘The Book of Laughter and Forgetting’  “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” And this is why there are novels, poems, songs and biographies of work and of people written - to hold onto what we know as true for as long as possible remembering the stepping stones that were laid down for our work and we provide for those tha...

We seek him here we seek him there and the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin the Russian General who took a group of mercenary fighters towards Moscow and then back again, is reminiscent of Humpty Dumpty who took a big fall - as I remember - and all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Humpty together again.

The Government party-gate reports are in, and the votes on ‘did Boris Johnson break the rules the government set for us all?’ were cast. 354 ministers said yes, 7 puffed no while a few slippery ones went missing. It is too much all too foolish and for this moment I am closing my eyes and ears.

It came on Saturday - effectively immediately - Boris Johnson resigned from his parliamentary seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip - a Greater London constituency inside of the M25 Motorway for those who need to know - It was on the front page of the Financial Times Weekend Supplement but - below the fold. Michael Heseltine, the former deputy Prime Minister under Margaret Thatcher - keep your friend...

On Monday evening our plane touched down in Athens Airport 59 years after we left - not knowing if we would ever see each other again. The drive to the city dips in and out of old memories. Small towns and old olive groves spread out in age, showing dreams made, broken and reset as the trees are realigned to the country’s fortunes. The scattered sage and scrub are muted in the decaying dusk before...

It was raining - of course it was - with the steadiness that puts up umbrellas and gives rise to the English complexion. It was not cold.

Once again the Government’s knickers are in a twist - and all of a sudden it doesn’t seem so far a stretch between rapping Gary Lineker’s knuckles, clipping Sir David’s prime-time wings, and jailing Vladimir Kara-Murza. 

Mother is very angry . She has tried to hide it, burping and farting, holding her wind in as best she can until she exploded. Two weeks after this initial emesis she has vomited again. The latest death count is to 47,000 and still rising. How can one care for the fusses of politicians and small scrappy wars where the planet is so attacked by the creatures who feed off of her. 

As the flurry of this last scandal broke, a government minister - whose name is not worth looking up - suggested that if anyone feels intimidated by a police officer they should ‘Wave down a bus’. It is clear that this government, like those before it, are as afraid of the police as are the general public. It is not surprising that this week a crate of 1071 rotten bad apples was left outside of Ne...

November rolled like storm-tossed tumbleweed into December and the nights slid earlier into darkness each evening. Now December is ending and even through the storms covering America the light is beginning to return.

November has closed in and daylight already slips away before tea-time leading into the long evenings. For amusement we watched our new prime and cabinet ministers dance a Scottish highland eight-some reel as partners were swung about, changed and reunited as fast as the fiddler could play. But a Prince who has become the King rehearsed more than dancing in his beloved Scotland

Later in the summer, the community (there is that word again) library hosts a barbeque party for the volunteers. A little wine is drunk, some sausage rolls and sweets are eaten and I ask Ben if he would talk to me about his book, The Marmalade Diaries for KWMR.org our community radio station in Point Reyes California, and he agreed.

"Dear, oh dear" muttered the new King, Charles 111, as he greeted Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace only two weeks ago. The double doors were swung open by a liveried equerry announcing "Prime Minister - Your Majesty”. Ms Truss bobbed forward to shake hands with the King, and said, ”Your Majesty, great to see you again," The King smiled as he replied "Back again?” - “Well come along then,” he may hav...

It has barely been three weeks since September 6th, when a rumpled Prime Minister Johnson arrived at the Balmoral Castle gates to hand in his card at 11 a.m. In quick succession he was followed by the tight-skirted Truss. It was a long morning for our Queen, and for those watching with concern - seeing the Queen holding onto a stick with one hand while smiling and extending the other used and brui...

The sky is cloudy and dull, pouting at being left behind in grey England while these two politicians vie for the Conservative leadership. The chambers of the House of Commons sit empty as ministers flee the city, following the example of their old boss Boris Johnson, who took his family off to Greece for the holiday month of August.

It was here, the heat wave, the amber warning turning to red and the temperatures rose to over 101º. Downstairs in our little cottage the bedroom, study and bathrooms are cool - and we are grateful. Upstairs, in the open-spaced living area the curtains are drawn as in my childhood when the temperature first climbed into the 70s and then, in 1976 to the low-80s. My mother’s curtains were heavy, chi...

Boris and his other buds are changing their minds at least every week as to what Covid restrictions will stay in place – not too many – if he can help it – as the country relies more heavily on vaccinations. The economy is leading the agenda – again.