Issue 47; Editorial, 5th April 2024

Welcome to the new issue of The Journal, only eighteen months since the last graced the internet and if you are a subscriber, your inbox.  Why has it been so long you cry, well, I just hadn’t had the time. That, of course, is the simple answer.  There is a long drawn out answer also, there have been words written for other publications along with the first draft of my book project being completed, so rewrite number one begins. Exciting but also a daunting task. It meant that my other articles have been a work in progress for sometime and not just because of my wine drinking and cigar smoking.

So what now? From six issues in 2021, to three issues in 2022, to nothing in 2023 to now this delight.  Through all the other projects which are on-going, The Journal will now be a Bi-Annual online publication, with some longer articles but remember if you subscribe to the mailing list you get an extra article on each issue plus a email only mini issue during the summer.

So what is in store for this first issue of 2024, well just scroll down, easy, from life with a dog, some Hollywood annoyance in the style world and a writing project I set myself in 2022, these are words on life and what comes with it in the realms of our shared interests.

I hope you enjoy the issue, and once you are done, head to the curated items from elsewhere on the web, situated at the bottom of the page so you can go and ponder the words of others or familiar faces.

TWC

Issue 47; Dog Day Afternoons

They say that a dog is man's best friend, the dog will wait for his master to return for the day to lavish him with fondness.  Now I may have missed something in the contract, but I feel it is more like the dog is waiting for the butler to return, the human servant who feeds said dog, picks up all the excrement when it is nice and fresh and rubs the belly of the upturned beast every time it looks a bit cute and demands it to happen.  I ask all, who really is the master here?

Issue 47; Styling the Hollywood Lies

Writing in the world of gentlemen's clothing and lifestyle always brings you into the same boring troupes.  Of course the Negroni, even though I am a drinker of this, it is not because of the Gram, it is because I have drunk it for years. Secondly, the love and admiration of the style of Steven McQueen, Daniel Craig (as Bond) and the film The Talented Mr Ripley (Messrs Damon and Law). But why are so many looking up to the lies of a made up world of movie stardom, do you actually like their style, if so, maybe you should follow the stylist.

Issue 47; Twelve Months of Letters

Like gin and a good steak, writing is a must in my life.  Whether I am scribbling some nonsensical idea for a novel or article in a notebook or really spilling my heart on why I love brogues, it has to be in my life in a form. I find my writing far out ways the way I talk, and not just my mixed London Kentish accent but sometimes I think back and wonder what on earth I was talking about. Constantly wishing I should have listened to many of my teachers and elders in my life that we should all think before we speak.  As I am now in my 40s this is unlikely to change. However the written word that sits before me, can be deleted and changed before read by the recipient.

Issue 47; Time for Hats

There are a rare few occasions when I will be seen wearing a hat out and about in town or country.  When I’m in more sunny climates on holiday then a straw style trilby dons by head, which was purchased in the Dominican Republic many years back when I realised I hadn’t brought a suitable hat, of any kind.  It has on occasions been brought out when at home, with the scorching summers we have been having recently.  There is no better attire to sip a chilled Gavi watching the world go by.