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Sam Widges, Soho, London   Sam Widges was a famous 1950s and 1960s coffee bar and beatnik hangout located on the corner of Berwick Street and D'Arblay Street in Soho, London. It was here I...

The Ultimate Cost of a Mother’s Obsession — Part 1: David   My cousin was a good looking and intelligent individual. He began more than a few promising relationships. However, his Mother,...

The Kama Sutra and the man from the building site   The Kama Sutra (attributed to Vatsyayana) is one of the most misunderstood classical works in global literary history. Before roughly...

James Joyce Ulysses   I bought my copy of James Joyce Ulysses, the 1958 Reprint of The Bodley Head edition at Willshaw's Bookshop in Manchester. It was a 'Getting out of the RAF' gift to...

Jazz Jam Session Tuesday at The Music Village   Located just a short walk from Grand-Place at Rue des Pierres 50, the club has been hosting live jazz since 2000. It presents around 300...

Why John Mayall Became Famous and Victor Brox Became a Legend   I knew both of them. Was a member of the other band when blues syndicate did their first gig at Manchester University Students...

Gyre And Gimble Coffee Bar   The Gyre and Gimble coffee bar on John Adam Street, London, in the 1960s, it was one of the small, atmospheric coffee houses around Charing Cross that had become...

Sydney's Psychic Experience On The Guildford Bypass   My friend Sid.K. The ultimate rationalise who seemed to have have his beliefs, or perhaps more correctly, his non-beliefs, tested in...

The Real Anji: The Friend Who Inspired Davy Graham's "Anji"   In the context of the acoustic guitar instrumental, Anji (often spelled "Angi" or "Angie") was the name of the girlfriend of...

'Hair' Siting On Stage With The 'Hair Band'   "In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hair wasn't just a musical—it was a cultural phenomenon. It ran for five years at London's Shaftesbury...

Robert Maxwell's Mother-of-Pearl Statue   A statue, larger than full-size, occupied a niche in the reception room of Headington Hill Hall. How it got transported from Paris to...

The Ultimate Cost of a Mother’s Obsession — Part 3: Nothing Learned   I met David's Mother a couple of months a after the funeral. There was a cheque I needed to give her, money paid out from...