Barbara Graham with Julie, left and Cliff

A boat, a reader and a coincidence

Have you noticed that the world is full of strange coincidences? I’ve always been a firm believer in fate – what is to be, will be – but sometimes the twists and turns that fate takes are very odd indeed.

Search goes on for news of Home Guard member

A couple of weeks back I wrote about Phil McCarthy, the father of a lady called Dinah Ballantyne, who was a member of the Home Guard given the responsibility for protecting Penton Hook Lock during the dark days of the Second World War.

Remember landing?

It always worries me that, bit-by-bit, our public rights can be eroded away simply because we don’t know when – or how – to protect them.