Roger Steele – Robin’s Nest

New home in a New Town – and it really is Brutal

I had been working on the Basildon newspaper for six months before I was actually offered a flat by the development corporation. Travelling to and from Burnham-on-Crouch every day did not make it easy to form new friendships outside work. The keys to the flat, on the fifth floor of Brooke House in the middleContinue reading “New home in a New Town – and it really is Brutal”

Hello, fancy meeting you here after all this time!

On my path through life I have met many people – at school, at work and in my leisure time. Some have entered my life and after a few years exited it again. Some school friendships ended when I left school (although there were a few which lasted longer – my dear departed friend RogerContinue reading “Hello, fancy meeting you here after all this time!”

Mea culpa – mea maxima culpa

Sorry I didn’t get back to the tale of our young reporter on his big adventure in Essex but a few things happened before I got round to it which made me think carefully about friendship, something I have talked about before. Friendship is important. We begin making friends when we are very young andContinue reading “Mea culpa – mea maxima culpa”

Time for a break

That first morning at the office in Holywell was quite a drag and enough to put some people off journalism for life. Halfway through the morning we had a coffee break and decided to switch subjects. Delwyn took the wedding reports (how many people can get married over one weekend?) and I took the obituariesContinue reading “Time for a break”

Virtual Rhyality

I miss Rhyl but is it the Rhyl I remember that I miss or is it the place itself? The closest I can manage at present is to let Google do the walking but even then when did Google create the images? I took you through the Rhyl I remember now let’s see the RhylContinue reading “Virtual Rhyality”

Nature’s infinite book of secrecy

Shakespeare knew that nature hides many secrets and that *man* (or in Antony and Cleopatra the Soothsayer) would be forever trying to seek them out. *man* please forgive this sexist reference but at the time science was, wrongly, seen as a male preserve. By the 1950s young boys were being persuaded to show an interestContinue reading “Nature’s infinite book of secrecy”

I must go down to the sea again

I distinctly remember when the wide, wet, salty sea and I became acquainted. It was a May day in 1955 and the Pierce family had arrived in Rhyl. I was five years old and would probably have got in the way of the men carrying our goods and chattels into the house. My mother decidedContinue reading “I must go down to the sea again”