The debonair Basil Marigold's

I was sat in the dining room this afternoon catching up on some paperwork when the landline phone started ringing. This is an odd sound for me as I am rarely in, but since I have been off work at home for the last week we tend to get 3 or 4 very pointless calls a day. They are either energy efficiency windows or automated messages. All rubbish. So, today, the phone starts ringing while the children are in the front room. They are very focused when they are watching television. As I say I am in the dining room. It rings a few times. By this point I have decided I am not going in to pick it up. The ringing stops suddenly and a plastic on plastic noise.  I then hear my son say to his sister, the television queen, 'Problem solved.'  By the sounds of it he has learnt to lift the receiver and then just put it straight down!  An effective new anti-phone spam device...

The one benefit of extended holidays is that I often find this the time to make a dent in the books to be read pile. A good meaningful dent. I know I shall never clear the to read pile as if you could do that then you are doing it wrong. This pile should always exist. In fact the last thought on your death bed should probably be, 'damn, I'm not going to have a chance to read that one now...poot!'.  People may of course disagree with me over this. I mean, they'd be wrong but they'd be entitled to their opinion.

We find ourselves in Devon again. It's a fairly annual event. Last year we came down loaded with our English Heritage card. We made the most of it during our stay by visiting places like Totnes Castle, and Berry Pomeroy. This year we have no English Heritage card. We have swapped. We now have membership of the National Trust. Slightly different to English Heritage as if it rains then with National Trust you find that most sites have a good, solid roof on it. This was not always the case with English Heritage. The odd afternoon stood sheltering in Abbey archways is proof positive of this. So, armed with our bright orange National Trust cards we begin adventures in Devon. One of the places that was on our list was Greenway. The holiday home of Agatha Christie. It's a property that clings to the banks of the river Dart. Up river from Kingswear & Dartmouth. There are a few ways to visit the property. We pre-booked a car parking space. However, you have the option of arriving by...

The family have driven off in the beast. They have gone south for a few days. We weren't fully sure if this was going ahead, as number 1 son was very poorly the day before the off. He recovered in time.  I'm left to enjoy the solitude of an empty house. It's always an odd experience nowadays. I'm far too used to the incessant noise of children. For instance, at the moment, I can hear the clock in the front room ticking. Tick tock. It's quite an ominous tick.

Sudbury Hall, above, is home to the museum of childhood. It is deep within south Derbyshire, within the very pretty village of Sudbury. As you can make out form the frontage it is a rather impressive and interesting place with lots of architecturlal flourishes. It's not particularly huge, in the grand scheme of English houses, but it's perfectly formed.  The museum of childhood was very interesting and the odd bit or piece reminded me of the toys I had when I was younger. They were particularly strong on the Victorian times where, ultimately it could be argued, children didn't really have much of a childhood. Compared to today's day and age, they had an awful time. Children, especially poorer children were essentially economic units that were used to ensure familial survival and an escape from work houses.  Very different to today. I think I was one of the last generations of working children. Before going to school I did a good 2 or so hours a day delivering papers, ab...

If you were to ask my daughter she would tell you that her favourite Beatles song is Yellow Submarine. It's arguably my least liked Beatles song. It's an appalling Ringo Starr song. You can tell, by the quality of it.  However. What the song was for is an animated cartoon that the Beatles participated in in the late 1960's. In its day it was seen as quite a ground breaking animation. Things were a little less advance back then. What did come out of it was the eponymous, Yellow Submarine. It's an iconic Beatle Image; Along with the front cover of the help album; John Lennons psychedelic Rolls-Royce; the front cover of the sgt Pepper album.  Lego have a section of their company called ideas were people can submit ideas of what they would like to turned into Lego. Some bright spark, a few years ago, suggested turning the Yellow Submarine into a Lego version. It contains all the band members dressed in their cartoon clothes.  The man in the shop told us that they had to mov...

It is arguably the coolest nickname of any Englishman; the Kingmaker. And, yes, did he make Kings. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick helped remove and put back Henry VI on the throne of England. But, far more famously, he put Edward, son of the Duke of York on the throne as Edward IV. It all fell within what we now call the War of the Roses. These finally ended with the death of Richard III, and the coronation of Henry VII as the first of the overrated Tudor Monarchs. However, the Kingmaker did not get to see this. After removing Edward IV and replacing him with Henry VI again, he was killed when Edward retook the throne after the battle of Barnet. His power was based around his wealth and his lands. Central to this was his home, Warwick Castle. I had never been to Warwick Castle until last week. As you can see, it is still in a very impressive state. It has had a fortunate existence. Richard son in law was the Duke of Clarence (Brother to king Edward), once Edward had kil...