For Novak Djokovic yesterday’s win at the Wimbledon Men’s Singles final was the sweetest of victories.  But that wasn’t because he’d earned himself another £2.25m in prize money, nor because it marked a triumphant return from two years battling injury and self-doubt, nor because it clocked up his 13th Grand Slam title.  Asked what it felt like to have won … Read More

Given everything else going on the world the rise of a new President of Ethiopia in January 2018 went largely unnoticed.  But under his leadership a country, once synonymous with Biblical famine, has continued on a path of positive transformation. Amongst many changes has been the ending of a long-running border war with neighbouring Eritrea, simply achieved by giving up the … Read More

With the England football team through to the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time in 28 years, it seems that their manager can do no wrong.  In fact, his character as a thoroughly kind and decent bloke is shining through, and the hashtag GarethSouthgateWould is trending on social media. My personal favourite is that Gareth Southgate Would … Read More

I’m not sure that the National Health Service has a strapline, but if it did it might well be, ‘We Welcome Strangers’, because while we think of ourselves as ‘patients’ when we visit a ‘hospital’ the Latin word from which that word derives means ‘stranger.’   In a famous passage about sheep and goats in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus teaches his … Read More

On the 23rdMay 2014 the Glasgow School of Art was devasted by a fire started by a small canister of expanding foam.  Opened in 1909 and regarded as the masterwork of designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, those who knew the building were devastated. Despite extensive damage there was no question of the building being pulled down, and work towards its restoration began … Read More

‘We cannot tolerate more attacks on our cultural heritage.’ So said a despairing official from Spain’s art conservation association, following yet another botched attempt by an amateur to restore a work of art. The arts and craft teacher called in to restore the 16thcentury wooden sculpture of St George had done their best, but the finished result was a world away … Read More

They say that if it seems too good to be true then it probably is.  But that didn’t stop hundreds of people in Florida paying almost a hundred dollars a time to purchase ‘golden tickets to heaven’ from Tito and Amanda Watts.  Tito assured prospective buyers that the tickets were made from solid gold and guaranteed a spot in heaven; … Read More

The incredible true story is told of a woman who was put up for adoption as a baby, and then spent years in later life trying to trace her father without success.  Eventually she gave up and then moved house only to discover that her new next-door neighbour was, in fact, her half-sister!  After all those years of searching it … Read More

Given Russia’s recent Communist past I suppose that it’s entirely possible that the planners behind one of the stadiums hosting World Cup matches in 2018, were unaware of a parable Jesus told about not building on sand. At a cost of €260m the Kaliningrad Stadium was built in the middle of the city on one of the country’s last great wetlands.  … Read More

We sometimes begin a journey quite sure of our destination, only to have something throw us off course and lead us in a completely different direction.  Take Dorothy for example who set off home only to be caught up in a tornado and whisked away to the Land of Oz and a bizarre adventure involving a Scarecrow, a Tin Man … Read More