Category Archives: travel

I remember monkey bottles, kangaroo tails, and Frank Ifield

Posted on November 28, 2018 by j futrell

  I am fortunate to have worked through a period in journalism when the gifts, the perks – the freebies to apply the correct journalistic parlance – were worth having. My diary is housed within a handsome Papyrus leather book … Continue reading →

Posted in gone west, London, media, Seashores, travel, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

when is a bookshop not a bookshop? when it’s in Hastings.

Posted on February 15, 2018 by j futrell

We hadn’t gone to Boulevard Books with a view to buying something to read. The thing is this secondhand bookshop in the centre of Hastings Old Town mutates into a Thai restaurant after dark and despite the walls in our … Continue reading →

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The drinker I didn’t know

Posted on October 25, 2015 by j futrell

It’s quiet living by the sea. Alright, it can seem a bit like London Fields during the height of the summer season when the Camel Trail teams with cyclists and every doorstep and bench is occupied by someone eating a … Continue reading →

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Dispatches to Sir Kev 28.01.2015 – bone idle

Posted on January 28, 2015 by j futrell

Dear Sir Kev, Sincere apologies for not writing sooner. I have no excuses, such as too much HSD (that’s beer), or I’ve been worked off my feet, or there’s no internet here in the south west, or even – nothing … Continue reading →

Posted in Dispatches from Tarn et Garonne, Seashores, travel, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

shut up and don’t think

Posted on July 28, 2014 by j futrell

Some things you never forget. Like riding a bicycle, or mixing the perfect vodka martini. It’s the same with Transcendental Meditation, TM for short; the simplest and most effective way I know for, well for lack of a better description, … Continue reading →

Posted in health, travel, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Dispatches to Sir Kev 15.6.14 – Dressing The Part

Posted on June 15, 2014 by j futrell

Journalists likes to think they have the power to influence. It’s part of the appeal of the job; mass coercion. Shaping opinion goes with the territory, and by and large readers keep to their side of the bargain. It’s why … Continue reading →

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Kid’s Stuff

Posted on May 5, 2014 by j futrell

  You want to know the worst thing about the roller-coasters in Disneyland? No, it’s not the white knuckle twists and high velocity turns, or the stomach wrenching plunges into an abyss. It’s the banks of photo screens as you … Continue reading →

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Dispatches to Sir Kev 21.04.14

Posted on April 21, 2014 by j futrell

Dear Sir Kev, I hope you won’t object but I thought of you the other day as a peloton of rangy cyclists in brightly coloured branded Lycra wear sped past the house where I was spending the Easter weekend. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Seashores, travel, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Nantucket – The Heart Of The Sea

Posted on March 2, 2014 by j futrell

Nantucket’s Jared Coffin House isn’t as macabre as it sounds. The red brick Georgian hotel, the oldest on the island, has white door columns and dark green louvered windows. It stands at the top of Broad Street, a reminder of … Continue reading →

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Dispatches to Sir Kev from Nashville Boot City 30.11.13

Posted on November 30, 2013 by j futrell

Dear Sir Kev, As a man profoundly wedded to the concept of wearing – wherever in the world – the appropriate garb (a guayabera in Cuba, a safari suit in Kenya, lots of brown in Norway) you can imagine my … Continue reading →

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