Patrick George Callaghan

Major Sir Malcolm Campbell was the first man in a racing car to reach 150 miles per hour, on Pendine Sands, Carmarthen, in 1925. He did set up higher records in America in his famous Bluebird cars, and in June 1947 tried to beat his own speed-boat record of 141.74 miles an hour with a jet-propelled boat, but had to postpone the attempt after achieving 110 miles an hour. 1885-1949. Cyril Maude was a London born actor, but obliged for health reasons to live first in Canada and then in America. He made his first stage appearance in Denver, Colorado, and his London debut in 1888. He played many successful comedy roles over the years. 1862-1951. Sir Bernard Spilsbury was a British pathologist, crime diagnostician, and authority on forensic medicine. He took his medical degree in 1905 and lectured at St. Bartholomew’s and other London Hospitals. He was Pathologist to the Home Office for 25 years and was called in by Scotland Yard in nearly every important case of sus...

Inn For Trouble 1960 is one of the funniest films I’ve seen for years. It features Peggy Mount and David Kossoff as Ada and Alf Larkin in a screen spin-off from its popular TV series. Alf’s faithful service and loyalty of 25 years to Belcher’s Brewery is rewarded with the management of his own Pub – The Earl Osborne, a remote and under used drinking house, but it seems their management of the establishment could be a short one. However, they do find some very comical ways to raise business, and when in the end a main road is planned to run right beside their public house, they find they are at last, sitting pretty! A very funny and fast moving comedy that also has a great supporting cast in Charles Hawtrey, Lesley Phillips, Irene Handl, Graham Stark, Ronan O'Casey, Stanley Unwin and of course Graham Moffatt from the Will Hay Comedies.

‘Being a personality is not the same as having a personality.’ Alan Coren. 1938-2007 English writer. ‘It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.’ Woody Allen. 1935- American film producer. ‘Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.’ Stephen King. 1947- American writer. ‘I must say that I’m interested in leisure in the same way as a poor man is interested in money.’ Prince Phillip. 1921- Duke of Edinburgh.  ‘Work is much more fun than fun.’ Sir Noel Coward. 1899-1973 English entertainer. ‘When a man opens the car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife.’ Prince Phillip. 1921- Duke of Edinburgh

The Runaway Bus 1953. Written, produced and directed by Val Guest is a comedy with a colourful cast. Starring Frankie Howerd, Margaret Rutherford, Petula Clark, George Coulouris and Terence Alexander. Heavy fog prevents all flights from London Airport, therefore a number of passengers are put on a coach for Blackbush Airport where the fog is lifting. Driver Percy Lamb played by Frankie Howerd doesn’t realise that thieves have hidden gold bullion in the luggage boot of his coach. What follows is a fast paced comedy with lots of twists and turns and a number of red herrings. I watched and enjoyed the film many years ago on television, and a recently purchased DVD left me with no doubt the film had suffered very little from loss of enjoyment in all those years since 1953.

I snapped this delightful picture when my granddaughter Shannon stopped to talk to this gentleman who was feeding the birds in Kensington Gardens in West London. Just a stone’s throw away is the area known as Bayswater, a myriad of shops, restaurants, and hotels, a place the family love to visit and stay for a few days. Chinese foods, Indian foods, and some of the best pubs in London offering first class ‘Pub Grub’ is just a little of what the area has to offer. There is of course Whitely’s, a huge multi-shopping complex that was developed from its original Victorian past. Several of my stories have been set in and around Bayswater and it will always be a favourite part of London to me.

Admiral of the Fleet the Earl of Cork and Orrery; William Henry Boyle, was Rear Admiral Commanding the 1st Cruiser Squadron from 1926-28, and afterwards commanded the Reserve Fleet and then the Royal Naval War College 1928-32. He was First and Principal A.D.C. to the King from 1936-38. Count Maurice Maeterlinck was a Belgian poet and dramatist. He was born in Ghent in 1862 and began practising law until success followed his first poetical works Serres Chaudes in 1889. His play The Blue Bird aroused wide interest, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911. By 1914 his works had been recorded on the papal index. Eden Phillpotts was a novelist and dramatist, who worked firstly in an insurance office then studied for the stage, but in fact became an author. He specialized in scenes of English life in Devonshire, particularly that of Dartmoor, and wrote many poems, plays, and novels. His works included The Human Boy, Children of the Mis...