Sam Redlark

image generated by Craiyon “Earlier, I saw from the window of my room, your men loading a quantity of barrels onto one of my wagons,” said Sir Echarde. “I counted eight in total.” His fingertips absently probed a dewy rosette of deep-pink petals, forcing the flower head down under his touch. He continued to dawdle along the brick fringe of the earth bed until his trailing hand strayed from the rose. The stem sprang back to its approximate original position, oscillating stiffly, hither and yon, between converging poles, shaking off old raindrops. A blackbird, that had been hopping around on the damp topsoil, silently took to the air. “Shale from the Norwegian fjord beds, preserved in its own water,” said Southwell. The blackbird alighted as a silhouette on the wiry branch of a nearby quince tree, where it scattered a rising alarm call across the ornamental gardens. Southwell was a fellow of the Unified Wells. Two years before, he had been made a Knight of the Loft in recognition of his ...

This is my response to a question that appeared on the Notes & Queries page of The Guardian website on 18th December, 2022. The Guardian is apparently no longer happy to host my comments on their site, so it is appearing here instead. This blog is obviously not affiliated with The Guardian. Its reference to a question that appeared in Notes & Queries is presented here under the terms of fair use. ~ Why is it OK to sing Christmas carols in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but not in the weeks following? image generated by Craiyon When I last visited Evelyn Kaye, her world had shrunk to a single, low-ceilinged room that was more like a cave. The curtains were drawn against the winter evening. Her doctor was of the opinion that she would not survive to see the light return to its June zenith. A kitten played in the flickers of shadow that were cast by fireplace onto the flagstone floor and the dust ripples made by the stiff broom-head. When she dozed, the young cat played on the...

Below is the script that I wrote for the first episode of ' London, building by building ,' titled 'The Shield House'. These videos appear periodically on YouTube. If you are already confused, then I suggest that you read my previous blog where I explain the concept of the channel in interminable detail. I thought about making this video for a long time. I had a photograph of a building that I wanted to use, along with some vague concepts and a basic structure. In hindsight, I dug my heels in a little too hard creatively and should have played around more with the ideas and the presentation. That being said, I probably needed to make one of these videos and see a completed version before I could judge what worked and what I wanted to change. Chapter One is presented as if it is an excerpt from book on London history. Consequently it holds the listener at arm's length. The second chapter course corrected and is an anecdotal first-person narrative with a bit more hum...

 (This post is intended to be one of a series covering my seldom-updated and seldom-viewed YouTube channel – 'London, building by building'. Subsequent entries will consist of the script for a single episode, along with my accompanying chapter notes.) A personal history of an occasional Londoner At the age of four, I travelled up to London, on the train, with my grandparents. We visited the Zoo in Regent's Park and, in the space of a few hours, I rode on the backs of both a camel and an elephant. Ever since that day, the city has been a treasure chest of adventure and ordeal. Many of my best and worst experiences have occurred inside its shifting boundaries. At the age of 18, I studied, for a year, at a private college that was located in a pair of adjoining town houses on Palace Gate, a few metres down the road from the Round Pond entrance to Kensington Gardens. It was at this point in my life that I began to explore the winding twists and turns of London's frequent...