It was on the final day of the RSVP conference – Saturday 15th June – in Stirling that I noticed this magnificent collection of thistles. It seemed an appropriate visual image for a place so associated with William Wallace – spiky, hardy, standing proudly independent of the surrounding vegetation. I’m happy to say that there …
What is it that links people as disparate as footballers Duncan Ferguson and Billy Bremner*; King James VI of Scotland and I of England#; jockey Willie Carson*; journalist Kirsty Young § and former Liberal Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman≠? All have a deep association with the ancient Royal Burgh, and now city, of Stirling in central …
Today Liverpool welcomes the new Cunard liner Queen Anne. I hope she enjoys a long and successful life at sea – and doesn’t suffer the fate that befell the clipper James Baines in Liverpool’s Huskisson Dock on 22nd April 1858. As reported in the press at the time – including this paragraph from the Illustrated …