The Little Ships in Molesey Lock

Elizabeth and her Armada

So the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is upon us and all over Britain, people are celebrating the monarch’s 60 years on the throne.

Memories of a magical – if nerve-wracking – time

I’ve always loved the pleasure boats that carry passengers up and down the Thames and I wrote in a recent column that as a youngster in the 1950s I used to enjoy watching the steamers coming and going from the pier at Richmond as they carried passengers upstream to Hampton Court or downstream to Westminster.

Big screen fame in African Queen

When I first came to live in Ashford, I didn’t give a whole lot of thought to the name of the town