Willing Hands

| April 24, 2020

All the Following Days The tale of two soldiers…both runners (messengers) with the 72nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (Seaforth Highlanders of Canada). Some days prior to the famed attack, whilst in the line near Vimy Ridge, Privates Alexander Broadfoot (130245) and James Mucklow (160827) stood near. Private Mucklow was on duty this day, 1 April 1917, […]

Structure, Skirt and Wheel

| January 4, 2020

Reoccurring Imagery in Film Near the start of this New Year I turn again to films whose peninsular lands I have wandered. From Peter Weir’s Gallipoli, that galvanized my interest in film-making, to Russell Crowe’s The Water Diviner whose pilgrim father is a character to whom I relate. In Weir’s Gallipoli it is the runner, within Mark […]

All-Telling Messengers

| October 17, 2018

Two French Memorial Sites of the Great War Several years ago, in company with an English friend, we were driven to several sites of conflict and memory. From place to place there was much to absorb and all the while I felt, Would I ever be able to find my way around these places?  Time […]

Carry On Cobber…Carry On

| April 25, 2018

One ANZAC of Gallipoli Today, 25 April, is ANZAC Day, a day when those especially connected to Australia and New Zealand remember those that went before. This before being, the veterans of Gallipoli, a ground this writer visited some while ago and whose heat, landscape, life, and reminders of war remain within. Trooper Rush of […]

James Duffy: Canadian Scottish Distance Runner

| August 13, 2016

Days of Champions Amidst the clattering of today’s world events we have some respite as the Olympics fill the ranks and files of media. Not without their “discussion” too, the Olympics celebrate achievement and highlight angst. There are stories each day of overcoming adversity, of participation and winning, sometimes even without receiving awards. The games […]