Richard D North
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Richard D North.

On culture, Nature, liberal issues, monasticism, spirituality

Page 19 of all posts

“Top Gear” and Chernobyl

I have a soft spot for the absurd Top Gear and its "star in a cheap car" and its supercar features. But above all I like the Flashmanism of some of the team's heroics. Very galling, then, to watch their absurd treatment of  a visit to Chernobyl. Read more...

Published

17 February 2014

Filed in

On TV & Radio

Somerset Levels flooding: who’s levelling with us?

It's 30 years since I spent serious time researching the Somerset Levels and its precarious balance between farming and wildlife, which of course hinges on how much flooding to allow. That was for my book, Wild Britain. Where are we now? Read more...

Published

12 February 2014

Filed in

Politics & campaigns

RDN on BBC WM on AGM

I had a brief outing on the BBC's Birmingham and Midlands local radio station, WM. Is the present flooding caused by manmade global warming, they asked? They had just trailed the Met Office's Julia Slingo as saying that climate change had caused the storms (though actually her remarks, though a little incautious, were fairly nuanced). Anyway, I was extremely cautious.... Read more...

Published

12 February 2014

Filed in

Poem: Poetry

Poetry

A word and a thought,
old friends,
but caught in stale marriages,
meet and fall in love.… Read more...

Published

03 February 2014

Filed in

RDN's poems

“American Hustle”: ****

Yes, it's a doubtful four stars - a tentative, deniable accolade. But there was lots to like about this movie... Read more...

Published

03 February 2014

Filed in

On movies

de Botton & misreading “The News”

I have disagreed with most of what I have read of Alain de Botton's work over the years and am not likely to read his latest, The News: A user's manual. In case you do, here is my take on what I understand him to be saying, so you can judge for yourself. In other words, here's a user's manual to his book. Read more...

Published

03 February 2014

Filed in

On books

Poem: A comic Knight

This poems tries to catch how scraps of childhood memory are such an important living background. Read more...

Published

30 January 2014

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RDN's poems

Poem: More arrows

It's curious how youthful optimism hasn't dimmed: I have been around long enough to be sceptical of achieving much now, but my aspirations are neither reduced nor feverish, so far as a I can see. Read more...

Published

29 January 2014

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RDN's poems

Poem: Obituary

Don't we all wonder how our lives will be assessed when we die? Read more...

Published

29 January 2014

Filed in

RDN's poems

Poem: Being quite trim

For a couple of years I have been what's called careful about what I eat, and have taken quite a lot of exercise. I wrote this as a kind of vanitas. Read more...

Published

29 January 2014

Filed in

RDN's poems
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