November 2014
Hot topic in the village this month is the now looming prospect of 350 homes and a traveller site parked on our back lawn. We are lucky in having someone with the eagle eye of a lawyer in Michael Nidd to fight our corner. PERA’s secretary has gone to great lengths to challenge the legitimacy of the proposal to build on Marchmont Fields. How can
October 2014
Horror of horrors! Going into Home & Colonial in Berkhamsted recently we were told that our favourite Sunday lunch haunt, the Attic Cafe, had closed. Apparently the owner, James Hannaway of Rex fame, had come in a few days earlier and laid off the staff, just like that. What to do? Where would we go for our smoked salmon and scrambled egg?
October 2014
It’s a tough job but someone has to do it. Following the lives of the Queen and her family is all in a day’s work for Hello magazine’s Royal correspondent Judy Wade.
September 2014
Driving back from Kent recently I stopped at a garage to buy a sandwich and a packet of Maltesers for my lunch. Now I know it’s very bad form to eat at the wheel but many of us do it. Having munched the egg and cress on the M23 I was looking forward to the Maltesers as I hit the M25. Then, disaster. I managed to spill the whole packet into the seat well of the car. Worse still, as I accelerated they all rolled to the back of the rear
September 2014
A resident has won his argument that Piccotts End ought to be in a division with the Old Town district ward. Michael Nidd, pictured, who is secretary of the village Residents Association, wrote to the the Boundary Commission, telling them that as Piccotts End had little in common with the Grovehill ward it was part of, it should become part of the Old Town ward.
September 2014
Female literary friendships is the theme of a new web site which has just been launched by a Piccotts End resident. Emma Sweeney, who is a lecturer in literature at the University of New York in London, is the co-founder of somethingrhymed.com, which focuses on little known female literary relationships.
September 2014
Piccotts End iron man Graham Witham has officially become a Guinness World Record-holder. Graham, who lives in Mill Close, was a part of the oldest crew to row the Atlantic last year and has just received his certificate from Guinness World Records. You can find out more about his exploits here.
August 2014
Petrol is passé, electric is classé. That’s my slogan after driving the car I predict will change our lives. The American engineer behind the new Tesla electric car is Elon Musk, a man they say will soon be as well known as Bill Gates and Sir Richard Branson. The Tesla looks like any other coupé. It’s wide, spacious and will seat 5 people.
July 2014
Sporting a Liverpool shirt young Kiera Ward certainly knows her football. When I chatted to the 8-year-old at this month’s summer garden party I asked if she was disappointed that Luis Suarez had left the club. No, said Kiera, because I also support Barcelona. Enough said. Kiera, who comes from Leverstock Green, is the niece of Jayne Barber who hosted the party at her Blue Gate home
July 2014
Piccotts End musician Professor Timothy Blinko has gained an important new ally in his battle against a proposed new building at the rear of the Mediaeval Cottages. Prof Blinko, who lives with this family in the house adjoining the cottages, believes the new house will loom over the cottages in a way that badly jars with their historic context.