Vaujany 2005/6

Over the famous Alpine winter of 2005/6, I worked as a ski guide in the village of Vaujany, Isere.

Cinq Jours En Juillet

Cinq Jours En Juillet
In July 2006, working for BBC Radio Kent and BBC Southern Counties Radio, I produced and co-presented a week of live radio programmes, video and web features about the south east of England's unique links with northern France.

Day 1
DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS: Heather takes the first of her French lessons with Madame Jacky; listen to 3 tracks from the French top 10; we talk to David Miller, captain of P&O ferry 'Pride of Kent'; we go on a guided tour of Le Torp Mesnil, the Normandy village that was to be out base for 8 days; meet Patrick and Carly, two thirty-somethings from Sussex who have bought a holiday home near Dieppe - we gate crash their BBQ!
Listen to the programme [55mins] Cinq Jours En Juillet: Day 1 [55mins]
Audio: Interview with P&O Captain David Miller [2mins]
Video: Meet Captain David Miller of the Pride of Kent

Day 2
DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS: Hear what the people of Hastings think of the French; Heather's task for the day was to hire a bicycle and ride to Paris; there's music from Dieppe-based band Pulsington; we sample a local fish dish - the 'Marmite Dieppoise'; we learn about the delights of the Seine Maritime region; there's the story of expat John Lambert, who commutes to Kent from France; Robert reports on the importance of learning French - for work and play.
Listen to the programme [55mins] Cinq Jours En Juillet: Day 2 [55mins]
Video: Lunch: Marmite - speciality of Dieppe [Broadband]

Day 3
DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS: As part of her language mission, Heather has to buy a teddy bear; we visit a local cider farm; we learn all about Martello towers and about Napoleon's threat to England; could Harold have beaten William at Hastings in 1066?; Robert reports on the heat wave in France and on the rush to buy property in France; there's a postcard from a Kent expat, living in Calais.
Listen to the programme [55mins] Cinq Jours En Juillet: Day 3 [55mins]

Day 4
DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS: There's 3 songs from Fécamp-based traditional musicians Marais de Paradis; Heather has to get her nails and hair done; we speak to a British estate agent working in France about what to look out for when buying abroad; Robert reports from the battlefield of Agincourt and uncovers its link to a school in New Romney in Kent; Heather speaks to the BBC's Paris Correspondent Caroline Wyatt.
Listen to the programme [55mins] Cinq Jours En Juillet: Day 4 [55mins]
Agincourt: a visit to the battlefield

Day 5
DAY 5 HIGHLIGHTS: Heather goes on a tour of the market in Eu; there are 3 tracks from cross-Channel funky folk band The Reign Parade; Robert is taken round three differently priced farmhouses in the Calvados region in Normandy to see what Brits can get for their money; we look at how French is taught in schools in England.
Listen to the programme [55mins] Cinq Jours En Juillet: Day 5 [55mins]
Audio: House hunting in Normandy [8:30s]
Video: House hunting in Normandy: Part 1 [Broadband]
Video: House hunting in Normandy: Part 2 [Broadband]
LIVE in Normandy: The Reign Parade session

France Radio series

During the summer of 2006, I created a series of audio features about our relationship with France.
Broadcast by BBC Radio Kent, commissioned by the BBC2 'Excuse My French' TV series.

Listen again:

Excuse My French

In July and August 2006, I produced a series of written features for the web about the south east of England's links to France, commissioned by BBC2's 'Excuse My French' TV series.

Published BBC Kent website, August 2006
Published: BBC County Life Magazine, 2006

France: making a 'Channel Region'
So close are we to northern France that for years, Kent has enjoyed a 'special relationship' with the Nord Pas de Calais region. Today, there are more cross-Channel links than ever.

Thanks to our sheer proximity, Kent's links with France are stronger than any other county's. And so they will remain, as long as they both shall live, for richer and for poorer. Facing each other across the busiest shipping lane in the world, these two regions still twitch with the memory of two thousand years of continental conflict. [more]

France: food for thought

We all love the Frech food and wine but it's not all one way. Believe it or not, we can teach our continental cousins a thing or two too.

Top of the list of souvenirs to return from trips to France - whether a day trip booze cruise or a week in Provence - is always food and wine, but not always in that order.
Without a doubt, you can still make huge savings by buying abroad: a glance along the shelves of any French supermarket is enough to stop you buying wine in the UK ever again. [more]

France: learn the lingo!

Don't let the language barrier stop you making the short journey across the Channel and experiencing life on the other side. Arm yourself with key phrases and tips, right here.

Even though the French are generally better at speaking English than we are at speaking French, that doesn't mean you can leave all the hard work to them.

While becoming fluent in another language can be a lifetime's labour, usually involving spending a while living abroad, grasping the basics is child's play. [more]

Moving to France
Thousands of us fancy the idea of acquiring a pied a terre on the other side of the Channel. Here's the story of those that make the move - and those that come back.

More than half a million Brits have second homes in France, while a further 100,000 live there permanently - and it's easy to understand why: there's the climate of course, the food, that wine lake and the lure of peace, quiet and a certain je ne sais quoi.

The most popular destination has always been the south west of France but large British communities can also be found further south in Provence and Longuedoc Roussillon, as well as in the more weekend-accessible areas like Normandy and Brittany. [more]

France: twin towns!

Sandgate does it with Sangatte just across the Channel; Deal does it with St. Omer; and the Medway Towns do the same with Valenciennes near Lille. Meet the twins.

For some it is a simple friendly exchange between school children and families from opposite sides of the English Channel, for other it's multi-million euro regeneration projects and tourism partnerships. Cross-Channel twins are not all identical.

Take Sandgate for example, and its twin town Sangatte, just over 20 miles away from eachother across the English Channel. They may sound like the ultimate Tweedledum and Tweedledee of the twinning world but these two towns, unlike Lewis Caroll's argumentative contrarians, get along famously. [more]

France: way to go!

Only 20 miles and yet a whole world away, northern France is easy to get to and has lots to offer. Find out about how to get there and where to go.

Once you have made your way to Dover, it is just a short distance to the French coast. In fact for many of us, the Pas de Calais region is much closer than London. [more]

Hops and Hartlake

Web feature / radio report / Video Nation film: Hops and Hartlake

Published: BBC Kent website, Oct 2006
Broadcast: BBC Radio Kent, Oct 2006: Dawn's Story

Video Nation film: watch

As a child, Dawn Baldock was told stories about Hartlake Bridge and the mystery of the White Lady mist, which still shrouds the scene of the 1853 tragedy. Read, listen and watch.

Even now, 60 years after first being told of the tragedy at Hartlake Bridge, Dawn Baldock still finds the place hushed in mourning and imbued with a deep sense of unease.

It was on the 20th October 1853 that the old wooden bridge spanning the river Medway near Hadlow gave way under the weight of the hop-pickers' cart, spilling them into the swollen, troubled waters below. Thirty people, the youngest aged just four, lost their lives. For Dawn, working as a hop picker in the neighbouring fields throughout the 50's and 60's, the echoes of the tragedy could still be felt.

Romany roots

Dawn's grandfather Edmund North was a Romany from a long line of travelling families traceable back to the 1700's. Born in Kent in the 1820's he and his peers worked as basket and chair makers, farm workers and toured horse races and markets selling pegs, button holes and, in season, Christmas decorations.

Dawn's mother Nellie was the first generation to settle - and they did so in Croydon after WW1. Edmund nevertheless kept to the old ways: "he used to have his little remedies for illnesses, he'd mix you up a potion or an ointment", says Dawn. He also loved music and would play a squeeze box, bones or spoons.

Friendship in the fields

Hop picking was always a part of the North family's life - in fact Dawn's parents met on a farm near Golden Green, just down the track from Hartlake Bridge. Dawn has fond memories of long Kentish summers:

"The hop-picking is a great part of my growing up - I went there from when I was five years old until I was a young married woman in the 60's.

"My friends were all from Romany families. Friendships like that mean an awful lot. True Romany friendship is the best friendship you can have."

The North's tin hut was decked out with silk bedspreads on the walls, brass beds and a dresser for the family china. Evenings were spent round the fire or groups of pickers would head to The Bell for drinks and shrimps. This was the highlight of Dawn's week - everyone would dress in their best clothes and walk up the pub where there would be laughter and music. But The Bell had seen sadder times - it was here that the bodies of the drowned hop pickers were brought back in 1853.

The birds wouldn't sing
And it was here, in the fields of Golden Green that the story of Hartlake seeped its way into camp fire conversation:

"From the time you could remember the story was told - about the travelling people drowned in the river. The bridge always had an air of something about it, you could sense something as you walked across it. The birds would be singing either side of the bridge but once you was on the bridge, it stopped.

"As children, if we were naughty, we'd be told to cross the white bridge. The children used to run across because we were afraid that the bridge would collapse. It just had this eerie feeling about it, even as adults you could sense it.

"And if you were near the bridge at dusk when the mist appeared - the White Lady as we called it - it looked as if it was coming from the water under the bridge. The feeling that the White Lady was the spirit of the river and the spirit of those that had drowned in that spot."

To this day Dawn still feels the draw of the river and can hear the water murmur with the screams of the 30 souls that lost their lives that day in October.

Changing Sides

Magazine feature: Changing Sides

Published: BASI Magazine, March 2005

BASI instructor Robert Leslie swaps snowplough for a rep’s clipboard and takes half-term head on.

A couple of them are up in the canteen, four Year 12’s were last seen on deck and the boy with the bottle-end glasses is still throwing up in the toilets. They shouldn’t be there. They should all be on the coach, which is now leaving the ferry at Calais. As soon as we’re clear of the berth, the already stretched and tired teachers charge back on board to extract the missing children. It’s half term, the busiest time of the year in the cross-Channel calendar: I’m a ski rep and I’ve already got the feeling this is going to be a long week.

I say ‘long’ because we’re already late, four hours to be precise. A problem with the docks at Calais, combined with a sea of British coaches all bound for Alpine snow, meant that we, and many like us, had been stacked mid-Channel, in choppy waters, for much longer than many could stomach. That explains why ‘Bottle-End’ had gone missing.

Having instructed over the years for a number of different UK companies in Italy and Austria, and always with similar coach-loads of British kids, I thought I’d give repping a go, to see what it’s like on the ‘other side’. After all, isn’t it all about hanging around in an oversized company jacket with a clipboard and phone, and spending your days free-skiing and sipping Génépi?

It’s now 2:30am, we’re outside a wine and beer cash and carry on the outskirts of Calais, it’s raining hard and Coach Two has got a puncture. While the drivers are jacking, cranking and cursing, I can sense the teachers are beginning to regret the decision to pass up the option to fly to Geneva and ‘give coaching a go’. Some of the kids, the younger ones, are already asking if we’re ‘nearly there’ and there’s a real risk that the video collection will run dry long before our arrival in Les Contamines, still 10 hours and what seems like a million miles away.

We’re finally under way and the long dark autoroute is laden with countless other coaches. I imagine northern France sinking under the combined weight of thousands of shrieking, fidgeting, sugar-high and hormone-fuelled teenagers.

Sleep is impossible. Throughout the long dark night and second-showings of ‘Dirty Dancing’ and ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’, the invading army oozes south and east towards the Alps. We’re still driving at daybreak – and at lunchtime, when the army joins forces with local weekend traffic to form a traffic jam of monumental proportions, stretching all the way from Macon to the ski resorts around Mont Blanc.

We’re still on board when the sun sets for the second time on our journey and we finally arrive at our hotel. That means I’ve been shoehorned into the coach now for 24 hours, surely some sort of endurance record that not even David Blaine would attempt.

But before bed comes ski fit, because the kids are in ski school in the morning. The skis and boots have been pre-ordered and pre-set, taking most of the hassle out of fitting 90 pairs of feet. There has to be a catch. Indeed there is, because between November - when the teachers diligently noted every child’s shoe size, height and weight - and now, puberty has taken hold of the Year 9’s, stretching their limbs and inflating their feet. They now stumble around as if on stilts, uncomfortable with their new size. Much of the equipment doesn’t fit. It’ll all have to go back. Tomorrow.

The ESF instructors look genuinely afraid as our column of children approaches the ski school. After a moment of bargaining and a form of Russian Roulette with straws, the groups are divided up. I feel especially sorry for the young instructor who’s left alone with the poorly-fitted Year 9’s and the screamers from Coach One. Still, they’re not my problem any more, at least not for the next two hours.

These moments are when it’s all worthwhile: when you escape the kids, when the teachers are content to join in with the ski classes and when the drivers are still tucked up in bed. I switch off my mobile and make a dash for the Aiguille Croche where there’s a new four-man chairlift. It’s been snowing non-stop for the last 48 hours: light, cold snowflakes stacked like champagne glasses. I’m in luck – first tracks and then second tracks, then first tracks again underneath the long Tierces chairlift, snow so deep a bow wave of tiny crystals streams over my head and high into the air.

My phone beeps back into life: three messages, one missed call. ‘Cn U call optician’, the first message reads. It transpires Bottle End has dropped his spectacles out of the La Gorge bubble lift and is having trouble making out his instructor through a fog of white. That afternoon, I’m with child and teacher at an optician’s in St. Gervais. By 4 o’clock, I’m making my third trip to the ski hire shop with the elastic Year 9’s, who seem to expand and contract with the changing temperature.

That week, I spend two afternoons at the hospital in Sallanches, I make a record five trips to the doctor’s in Les Contamines. By Friday I am of the opinion that the local commune is kept afloat not by winter sports but by the income generated from its pharmacy. There are three girls with identical flu symptoms, another with a sprained thumb and a teacher with a bad back. I’ve even taken one of the drivers for a check-up. Suspected snow-blindness.

Then there’s the bowling, the ice-skating, shopping trips and the afternoon in Chamonix. But in between are snatched moments of bliss in the mountains. These moments are like diamonds, refined and distilled by the pressure of rushing and fetching, of reassuring and defending, of waiting and hoping.

I’m on the coach home and have just finished praying to the god of incident-free journeys when the coach runs out of diesel. It’s snowing hard and Calais is ten hours and what seems like a million miles away. I wouldn’t be anywhere else on earth.

Skiing Over Lemons

Magazine feature: Skiing Over Lemons

Published: BASI Magazine, March 2004

On a quest for snow, Robert Leslie gets lucky in the south of Spain

Like many skiers, I need a snow fix at the start of each winter season, but last December the odds of finding any within range of a cheap flight were stacked against me. The Alps were in a sorry state, the Pyrenees not much better. Webcams showed brown slopes though rain-smudged glass.

I was obviously going to have to look further afield. A few clicks of the mouse, a phone call to a friend, and I had struck gold, white gold.

Mine were the only skis on the baggage carrousel at Madrid airport and I'll admit to having second thoughts as I threw my hire car south over the flat, baked farmland. The Brits on my flight were also heading south, but they were bound for the Costas for winter sun and relaxation. Instead of following their tracks to Malaga, I stopped short of the coast in Granada, the majestic Moorish city at the foot of the Sierra Nevada.

I can't remember which I saw first: the mighty Alhambra Palace or the graceful lines of Veleta peak standing at nearly 3,400 metres. Either way, it was clear that there was snow and lots of it. While Alpine Europe was still waiting for the first real snowfall of the winter, it seemed that this corner of Spain had been selfish and taken the lot. Two weeks and three metres of snow had turned the Sierra Nevada into a freerider's dream-come-true. They say the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain, but now I know where all the snow goes.

A mate of mine Giles runs an English ski school up the mountain with the catchy name 'Ski Centre': "We get this quite a lot," he confided after I'd made the half an hour climb up from Granada. It turns out Sierra Nevada has a longer season than many of its Alpine counterparts, often running deep into May. It's also one of the highest resorts (at 2100m) and one of the sunniest. On a clear day, from the top of Veleta peak, you can see beyond the Mediterranean Sea as far as the Moroccan coast and, it's rumoured, the flanks of the Atlas Mountains.

Rich pickings

It's not a vast ski area by any stretch of the imagination but when the snow is as good as this, it's not the size that matters.

Advanced skiers will find plenty of action both on the Veleta peak and in the Laguna Valley. The World Cup Giant Slalom and Slalom black runs, the "Fuente del Tesoro" & "Neveros", are enough to raise your pulse, but it was powder I had come for and it was powder I got. Sierra Nevada's ample off-piste terrain, bordered by the impressive "Tajos de la Virgen", also offers up rich pickings.

With that same sense of disbelief I had felt at Madrid airport, I set off each morning early, expecting the mountains to be scarred with tracks, to have been traversed and churned. But there were still acres of smooth white, interrupted only by our tracks from yesterday, or was it the day before?

These are the days I remember the most – and this particular one was a Monday. No lunch, just wide arcs in the powder until all the lines joined up. It certainly helped having a local instructor to lead the way and the two of us barely stopped for breath until the shadows told us it was time to call it a day.

Sleeping is cheating

Night-time in Sierra Nevada unleashes lively pray for the party animal. But there's a catch: no one goes out until 11pm at the earliest, making things complicated for the 'first lift' skier. But if you have transport, then it's got to be Granada, only 25km down the hill.

A network of long narrow streets and narrow cobbled lanes make up the centre of the city and they all seem to be filled with shops, bars, plazas and history. It's the "Tapas" capital of the Spain and for every drink you purchase, a different "tapa" you receive. I didn't know what I'd done to deserve all this free, delicious food but looking up at Sierra Nevada in its evening glow, I knew I'd earned it.

If you venture further still, about one and half hours drive from resort heading in the direction of Motril, are the Alpujarras. These are the meandering foothills that prop up the Sierra Nevada to the south and have gained renown since Chris Stewart set up shop and wrote 'Driving over Lemons', a story about giving up life in the UK for rural Spain. I must admit the thought crossed my mind too. This corner of Andalucia had certainly left its mark but I hoped that, at least for a few days, I had also left mine.

Who You Gonna Call?

Web feature / radio report: Who you gonna call?

Published: BBC Kent website, June 2006

Broadcast: BBC Radio Kent, June 2006. Interview: radio edit (3:50)

Published: BBC County Life Magazine, 2006

If there's something weird in the neighbourhood, who're you gonna call? Well, if you live in Kent then perhaps Jeane Trend-Hill should be your first port of call. Meet the ghost buster...

Jeane Trend-Hill spends her life with ghosts. Not the green and slimy ones from the film or even the terrifying ones that lurk in a child's worst nightmare - but the ones that cling to people and places because they have a story to tell. Jeane is one of those rare people that can interpret these stories and who can, like Cole Sear in 'The Sixth Sense', see dead people.

Jeane was just seven years old when spirits started visiting her in her bedroom. The first she remembers was a friend of her grandmother's who had died three years previously. She had never met the old man while he was alive and her parents were stunned when Jeane described who she had seen.

Today, Jeane is a parapsychologist and psychic investigator. She regularly carries out paranormal investigations within old buildings, homes or areas where there may be unexplained activity. Armed with an EMF (Electro Magnetic Frequency) meter, camera equipment and her acute sixth sense, she records the presence of souls - lost, lonely or just plain mischievous.

Voices and colours
Until she was in her teens and before she attended the College of Psychic Studies in London, Jeane didn't think her gift was in any way unusual:

"I just assumed everyone could see dead people and it was quite a shock to me to find out they couldn't."

Jeane would see auras, colours and have strange feeling when she went to meet friends and relatives. Some spirit figures would be defined and clear, at other times just a fleeting apparition or would manifest themselves through a feeling of unease, sadness or pain.

Jeane's formal training has taught her to control her own instincts, to mute her senses and to arrest the constant bombardment of voices. But sometimes, the feelings are just too strong to override:

"I was in a café a couple of months ago and a woman was sat at one of the tables. I realised she had lost a grandchild. The emotions that I felt were very strong and sad. Her daughter joined her and I realised that it was the daughter that had lost the child."

Sometimes spirits will talk to her or their name will simply pop into her head: "It's a bit like a slide show - click, click, click - and I tend to just say what I see."

Doorway to the other side
Jeane's work is not just a one-way process whereby the living come to Jeane to open a door to loved ones who have departed - quite often it is the other way round. She says that spirits know she has unusual powers to communicate with them and approach her with their stories.

"They want to give us a sense that there is more to this life and we can move on to a better place. I can also sense when living people have lived before - there are a few old souls wondering around who have been here before."

Jeane's work can also bring comfort to people. "They want closure, especially if they haven't had a chance to say goodbye - they want a sense of forgiveness that they weren't there in the final moments."

While Jeane is happy to act as a medium in these cases, she doesn't go in for Ouija boards or exorcisms. She has however been called in to investigate poltergeist activity, which she says is usually the work of child spirits:

Kent investigations
Buildings, says Jeane, absorb sounds and events like a sponge and then replay them like a tape.

ROCHESTER >> Read or listen to Jeane's account of her visit to Rochester. She feels as though she'd been 'stabbed in the heart', she senses the drama of a knights' battle and finds a park with an 'oppressive' presence.

DOVER >> Jeane visited St James' Church and Cowgate cemetery in Dover. On the site of the church she senses that there had been a stabbing and she also sees Victorian children and a woman called Agnes.

Jeane has been born with a rare talent but remains undecided as to whether it is a blessing or a curse: "There are times that I would rather they leave me alone but I've always had this gift and I don't know what life would be like without it."

Kent Blogs On

Web feature / magazine feature / radio report: Kent Blogs On

Published: BBC Kent website, August 2006

Broadcast on BBC Radio Kent: 'Kent Blogs On'

Published: BBC C0unty Life Magazine, 2006

Technophiles up and down the county are expressing their most intimate thoughts, ranting about their world and publishing their news, all through the medium of blogs. Robert Leslie reports

Kent's blogs are being published by very different people and for very different reasons: for some a blog is the perfect medium through which to communicate with friends and family and to keep them up to date with daily events; for others it's a soap box for campaigning and rabble-rousing; it's also a tool for sharing news and specialist information and for inviting comment and discussion.

But what is a blog? A blog, shorthand for 'web log', is a regularly updated online journal. Some keen bloggers post new entries several times a day but most are updated daily.The most recent entry sits at the top of the blog and features a title, text, time it was posted and a permanent weblink to the post. Entries often combine text, images and links to other blogs or web pages. People reading the blog are also invited to leave a comment which is then published next to the original posting.

It is also possible set up RSS feeds to your blog so that readers can subscribe to your very latest posting.

Blogs have become an established part of the online world - with a new blog said to be created ever half a second. Technorati, the leading blog search engine, is currently [September 2006] tracking 52.6 million blogs worldwide.

For blogs, as with other websites, a form of natural selection is underway and the cream tends to rise to the top. The more a blog is viewed and recommended, and the more it is linked to from other blogs and websites, the more prominently it will feature in Internet searches.

Why would you?

Blogs are giving a voice to millions of people who would otherwise have had no means of publishing their writings and ramblings. While it's fair to say that many bogs are made up of the kind of naval-gazing that would only be of interest to the author and his/her immediate circle, others provide unique observation, entertaining commentary and specialist knowledge that is hard to find elsewhere else.

The advantage of course of blogs is that they are free to launch and maintain [for basic blogs], are unrestricted by editorial controls and are open to interaction and comment from anyone, anywhere in the world.

Furthermore, you don't need to know anything about computers or web design. Sites like Google-owned 'Blogger' or Typepad will allow you to start blogging in a matter of minutes. And as for what you then choose to do with your blog, well, that's up to you...

Dear diary...Casting an eye over Kent's blogs, it's clear that many fall into the Bridget Jones category - full of personal anecdote and day-to-day observation - but increasinglypunctuated with photo and video content as well. These blogs are the 21stCentury equivalent of the personal diary - except visible to the entire online world.

Mike Jarvis runs his blog 'jarvboy' as a way of keeping friends up to date and also to express himself:

"I always use it, probably more so than I should, to analysis certain aspects of my life or situations, when I missed the opportunity to do so at the time. Also, I can get anything that's been bugging me off my chest."

Often, diary-type bloggers like Mike forget than any Internet-enabled computer-user on the planet can dip into their most personal musings. Ann from Orpington started her blog 'Five Home Ed In Kent' in November 2005 to chart the highs and lows or home educating her three boys:

"It's like a diary where you pour out your innermost thoughts. It's not always about home education - but it is always about life. Sometimes you have to remind yourself that people around the world are reading - but also people that know you as well."

Ann knows that by sharing her experiences, she can not only help others in a similar position, but also help herself:

"It's a regular form of self-expression that I find interesting and therapeutic in a lot of ways. Some people use them [blogs] as evidence to show to the local education authority how they have been educating their child… I'm quite conscious that I've got a responsibility to present home education warts and all."

Citizen journalists
Unedited and unmoderated, blogs aren't always friendly. Free from editorial control, many bloggers choose to fight on behalf of a disenfranchised community or campaign close to their hearts. Whether it's traffic cones, politicians or simply promoting local theatre productions, bloggers are out there fighting for their cause.

In this sense, blogging gives a voice to people who would otherwise have found it impossible or too expensive to publish their opinions. Today, readers hungry for a more human, unmediated version of events, are turning to blogs.

This is particularly true at times of conflict when information fed to media outlets is under strict control. During the Iraq war of 2003, Salam Pax's blog detailed the fears and hardships of Iraqi citizens as they prepared for the inevitable invasion. Likewise the conflict between Israel and Lebanon has spawned a host of weblogs, many of them in English. They offer a variety of diary-style reportage, eye-witness accounts and photographs, and intense scrutiny and analysis of the coverage of events by traditional media.

This sea of 'citizen journalists' are often beating news agencies to stories, posting accounts of on-going events, photos and video before the machinery of formal news gathering has even ground into action. Political commentator Iain Dale from Tunbridge Wells recently made the front page of the Daily Mail with a story that he broke on his blog.

Mark from Tonbridge runs 'Tonbridge Blog' and, as a former print journalist, appreciates how liberating it is to publish in such a direct way:

"Where else can you publish a one man news comment "paper" reaching the whole world for five quid a month! The blogosphere is a bit like a radio phone in programme online, which covers almost any topic, but with no censors. My site has a local focus on the Tonbridge area so there is also an element of doing my bit for the town."

Thanet: blog central
In Thanet a cluster of blogs has emerged to highlight the failings of the local council and its councilors to breathe new life into the area.

Blogger 'Eastcliffrichard' posts on his own self-named blog as well as on the 'Isle of Thanet Gazunder', a tongue-in-cheek 'Day Today'-type swipe at Thanet goings-on.

Tony Flaig is another to target Thanet in his 'Big News Margate' blog. "I am particularly aware that the average working person has little representation within the media so hopefully the likes of me can redress the balance."

"I have witnessed the decline of Margate and feel compelled to offer a critique of Thanet life." And that he certainly does - sometimes with humour, at other times with venom.

Dr Simon Moores also concentrates on Thanet in his blog 'Thanet Life'. This is a more serious news site, hoping to engage readers with local politics by inviting all parties to contribute to the blog and discuss the news of the day.

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

While some see it as their duty to bring local government to account, others blog as a way of celebrating their surroundings. Tunbridge Wells is the focus of two very different blogs - disgusted.tw and anke.blogs.com - both focusing on life in Tunbridge Wells, but from very different angles.

'Distusted' is on a one-man mission to name unrepaired, broken or neglected public spaces and to shame the local council into action. In celebration of the town's 400th anniversary 'Disgusted' of Tunbridge Wells hopes to find 400 broken lights, dirty signs and suchlike to list on his blog. At the time of writing, [September 2006] he and visitors to his blog have found 300 - and they've even been plotted on Google Map.

Anke's blog is perhaps the antithesis to 'Disgusted' - it's a flowing and genuine tribute to the same town - it's history, beauty and all-round loveliness: 'a day away from Tunbridge Wells is a day wasted', reads the subheading.

Chris, who runs the Anke blog, says: "I wanted to be the anti-'Disgusted', so I thought that I'd look at things people enjoy - the culture, the history - and try to get people to love the place again".

Share and share alikeThen there's the notice board-style blogs, providing specialist information, news, gossip or industry updates at the click of a mouse.

Blogs can be invaluable as content and news aggregators - scouring a multitude of sources on a specific subject [anything from showbiz gossip, computer games and gardening tips to health advice and agony-aunt type advice] before posting it to a blog where it can be disseminated instantly.

Dan runs the blog for the Kent Wildlife Trust, which provides colleagues with up-to-date news:
"Things like species seen, work carried out on reserves etc. It was hoped that this would provide and quick and informal way of presenting this information."

For Mark at the Downs C of E Primary School, blogging is seen as the best way of keeping staff, parents and children in the loop:

"By giving others in the school the relevant password details, it also means the senior management team, and the school secretary, can add information that they feel is relevant, taking the pressure off the person who creates the school website. The RSS syndication also allow readers easy ways of accessing our information as soon as it is updated, rather than them having to check the websites."

Blogs are indeed creeping their way into Kent life so isn't it about time you blogged on to find out?

Phil Harrison: Trail-Blazer

Magazine feature: Phil Harrison - Trail Blazer

[Published: BBC County Life Magazine, 2005]

You might not always hear Phil's voice on BBC radio Kent, but his work rings out loud and clear. Profile by Robert Leslie

Behind every successful radio station, lie the trails and jingles that define its 'sound'.

Phil Harrison is crouched in the corner of a studio with a ruler in one hand and a microphone in the other... [click the image to read more]

A Week In Africa

Magazine feature: A Week In Africa

[Published: BBC County Life Magazine, 2005]

A season of BBC programmes on Africa hopes to cast the continent in a better light, as Robert Leslie explains.

We’re always told to feel sorry for Africa. Charities, news reports, NGO’s and a string of celebrities tell us that is where the famine is, the poverty, the war, the disease and the corruption. They tell us to dig deep and donate and we do. This year’s Red Nose Day alone raised over £37 million, with 60 per cent of that amount destined for Africa.

In fact, 2005 is an important year in the struggle to alleviate Africa’s pain. The western world is finally waking up to the need to reverse the statistics that routinely place the continent at the bottom of the pile: 18 of the 23 countries in the world which find it difficult to feed their people are African; AIDS kills 6000 people there every day; Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region of the world that has got poorer in the last generation.

This year also sees more than 300 charities, trade unions and faith groups, uniting behind the Make Poverty History campaign. With its white wrist bands and celebrity endorsements, the campaign aims to force trade, debt and aid to the top of the political agenda and what better time to do so. The continent will hit the headlines thanks to the G8 conference, the Commission For Africa, not to mention the 20th anniversary of Live Aid.

But while our focus is being diverted – and rightly so - towards the suffering in Africa, it is also important to paint a more complete picture of the continent: as a giver rather than just a taker; as culturally influential rather than global basket case.

Celebrating Africa
The BBC’s Africa Week, which starts on July 4th, aims to paint Africa with another brush. Throughout the summer, the BBC will offer a huge variety of programmes across all its services broadcasting both within the UK and worldwide. This focus on Africa will provide new perspectives on the continent as it is pushed to the forefront of the world's consciousness and demonstrate the enormous amount that we have gained from our relationship with Africa.

Throughout Africa Week, BBC Radio Kent will bring you a taste of everyday life in Africa. Our reporter Jude Habib has travelled to Zambia and Malawi to record a variety of voices, from a taxi driver and shop keeper, to a football fan and radio presenter. While not ignoring the problems these countries are facing, this series of profiles tries to confront stereotypes and demonstrate that Africans are in charge of their own lives.

BBC News will play a full part in the season with live broadcasts from the continent and special editions of news and current affairs programmes dedicated to African issues. National BBC TV and radio will also dedicate air-time to African themed programming. Drama, arts, entertainment, documentary, natural history, sport and children's programmes will all provide different opportunities for audiences to build a broader picture of Africa.

Class actOne of the ways in which a positive view of Africa is seeping into our consciousness is through our schools. By the time Africa Week kicks off, the BBC is hoping to have encouraged a thousand schools in the UK to twin with a thousand schools on the continent. The ‘World Class Africa’ initiative is not a fund raising activity. It’s about developing a relationship which enriches learning and understanding in both schools – as well as a chance to have fun.

Kent is ahead of the game when it comes to school twinning and already a generation of children are emerging with a deeper understanding of Africa. Many of our students have travelled out to visit their counterparts in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa; teachers in both countries are sharing knowledge and best practice; and our Junior and Infant schools are holding African Arts weeks and even learning Zulu dancing.

Charity case study: ICR
Many local charities have long-established links with community projects in Africa.
Last year the BBC South East’s Tom Chown volunteered his skills to Tunbridge Wells-based charity ICR and travelled to Kenya to see the work they are doing to help children and young people learn vocational skills and educate them about HIV/AIDS.

Tom visited several projects during his trip, including education workshops in remote villages where funding is being used to train local groups of teenagers as peer councillors. These trained workers then run sessions that spread the message of safe sex to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS & STD's.

In the village of Maina in Lakipia District Tom met Debora, a trained peer educator who lives with her parents and seven brothers in a two-roomed wooden house. The village has a population of approximately 30,000 and it’s thought the HIV infection rate could be as high as 40%. Through Deborah and her colleagues’ workshops it’s hoped there will be a marked decline in the numbers of people dying from AIDS.

10 Africa facts

1. Africa is so large you can put the whole of Europe and North America in it and still have room left over.


2. Africa’s bird species are going extinct 50x faster than birds in Europe.


3. In 2050 Africa’s human population will be 3x that of Europe.


4. The Sahara is expanding southwards at ½ a mile per month.


5. Lake Malawi has the largest number of species of fish anywhere on earth (1000 recorded


6. Over 1000 different languages are spoken in Africa - South Africa has 11


7. 30,000,000 people in Africa have HIV -12,000,000 children have lost their parents to AIDS.


8. Sub-Saharan Africa makes up 13% of the world’s population and 28% of world poverty.


9. Nigeria alone is home to 10% of the world’s total number of people living with HIV and AIDS.


10. Kent’s Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks are home to the largest herd of African Elephants in the UK and the largest breeding herd of Black Rhino outside Africa.

Maddocks With An 'S'

Magazine feature: Maddocks with an ‘s’

[Published: BBC County Life Magazine 2005]

When BBC Radio Kent’s daytime presenter Julie Maddocks started researching her family history last November, it wasn’t long before the past began to throw up a few surprises. Words by Robert Leslie

Uncovering your family history is one of the UK’s fastest growing hobbies and as the BBC’s recent TV series ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ showed, everybody is getting in on the act.

While the likes of Amanda Redman and Jeremy Clarkson delved into their ancestors’ murky past for the BBC 2 series, Julie Maddocks produced a series of radio features for BBC Radio Kent about her own investigations at the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies in Canterbury.

Armed with just her parents’ birth certificates and a few hand-me-down stories, Julie was guided through the Institute’s maze of books and archives by family history expert and founder Cecil Humphery-Smith.

The 28 rooms of the 13th century building on Northgate are crammed with a colourful mix of new technology and old, crumbling books. It takes an experienced eye to search the endless records of names, occupations, births, deaths and marriages, but it was on the internet that Julie made her first real breakthrough. A search of marriage records confirmed that her great grandfather was hairdresser Joseph Wilson Maddocks, who had married Anne Perry in Bromsgrove in March 1901. This discovery now meant Julie could take another step into her family’s past.

World wide warning
The web is seen by many as responsible for the growth in interest in family history, but it does come with a note of warning. Although searches of archives such as the 1901 census can produce quick results, it’s very unlikely you’ll get everything you need over the web. Cecil Humphery-Smith is a strong advocate of ‘old-fashioned’ research: “The problem with the internet is that the sources they use are very often inaccurate or incomplete – and so are not really reliable.”

There’s no right or wrong way to go about your research but the simple logic is that the more thorough you are the more accurate your results will be. The Institute’s librarian Sarah Bulson says that if you reach a dead-end, it’s worth persevering: “look at the problem sideways – if you do get stuck there’s usually another avenue that you can explore so never give up.”

What’s in a nameJulie’s next step was to search for ‘Maddocks’ on the 1901 census website, and this is where things started to get interesting. Her initial search drew a blank and it was only by dropping the ‘s’ that she managed to identify her great great grandparents.

At the time of the census, Joseph Maddocks had been staying with his father-in-law, who had misspelt Joseph’s surname while filling in the census return. To make matters more confusing, Joseph had lied about his age. Further searches for ‘Maddock’ and a look at the 1891 census revealed that Joseph’s parents were Charles, a railway engine driver, and Mary Wilson. The two had married in 1853.

It’s not unusual for simple things like spelling to throw genealogists off the scent. To make their task even harder, it was not uncommon for our ancestors to use more than one name during their lifetime, nor, as Joseph had done, lie about their age.When you start looking back in time beyond 1837, which was when civil registration for births, marriages and deaths was introduced in England, things get even foggier.

Before this date, you need to forget your computer and turn detective. Registers of baptisms, burials and marriages were maintained by each parish and often these are incomplete, missing or plain wrong.”I had no idea what to expect”, Julie admitted after her visit to the Institute, “to get back 150 years was amazing and the story about the Maddocks name is definitely one to pass on”.

But there was one final surprise in store, this time for Julie’s father, Wilson. He had always thought that US President Woodrow Wilson was to thank for his distinctive Christian name, but never suspected that it was in fact his great grandmother’s maiden name, and that it had been handed down ever since to the first-born son.

BBC Kent Genealogy Open day
BBC Radio Kent held a family history open day at the Institute on Saturday 4th December 2004. About 100 people came from all over the county looking for help in their search for an elusive ancestor or for advice about starting out.

Jackie Banham found out more about two great uncles who were killed on the Somme in 1916. One died at the age of only 18 and Jackie discovered that his middle names were Prince Wales, named after the pub in Hoath where he was born.

Bill Collard managed to track down his grandfather in the 1891 census, even though he was registered with another first name.

Searching tips The first task that faces every family historian when they begin research into an individual is to collect basic biographical details about the person under investigation. The events that are shared by everyone - birth and death - are the best place to start. By compiling a skeleton of facts centred on these events from legal or parish records you can then continue to flesh out other aspects of that individual's history.

1. Often the best place for you to start your search is at home. Talk to as many family members as possible. This way you can obtain the crucial first-hand accounts, memories and stories that will set you on your way, especially from older generations.

2. Look at birth, death and marriage certificates, parish records, and wills left by your ancestors - among other things. Most of your research will take place in archives, local studies libraries or specialist family history centres.

3. Once you have registered as a user at your chosen archive or records office, be clear about what information you want - be it a birth certificate, record of baptism or a will - and who the person is that interests you. This way you will probably receive a much clearer answer than if you fall into the trap of recounting your entire family history.

4. The internet is a major source of information for family historians. Here you'll find advice about how to get started, and sometimes useful pre-researched data. Many genealogists also use the net to share their research results.

For more information about researching your family history, go to bbc.co.uk/familyhistory

The Revolution Is Coming

Web feature / magazine feature: The Revolution Is Coming

Published: BBC Kent website 2005 BBC County Life Magazine 2005]

Like it or not, new media technologies have taken over our lives. The BBC is fighting hard to keep abreast of the digital revolution.

As media organisations struggled to make sense of the terrorist bombings in London on 7th July 2005, and long before TV satellite trucks arrived on the scene, witnesses were busy sharing photos and videos online, as well as chronicling a time-line of the horrific events on their own blogs (web logs).

This was just one of many reminders, as if we needed them, that the world of new media technology has changed, and changed for good.

In fact new media devices are fundamentally altering our society – from the way we work, to the way that we shop and play. If you think the past few years have seen startling change, then the next few are likely to be even more disruptive.

From new media to my media

The obstacles that once stood in between the consumer and the latest gadgets – cost, ignorance, apathy, non-universal access – have been largely overcome by the recent generation of affordable, user friendly devices which have clear benefits over existing ones.

Only a few years ago, new media technologies were viewed with the same suspicion as the telephone was some 80 years ago. Just 10 years ago email and the Internet were the exception, where now they are the rule.

But like the telephone, today’s new gadgets have passed out of the unusual and into the mainstream. The runaway success of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), MP3 players, tells us that consumers are more than happy to listen to the radio and watch TV at a time of their choosing.

And the seemingly fathomless appetite for camera and video phones, for VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) telephone calls, for wireless technology and for personal web space demonstrates that we’re not afraid to embrace new technology – nor to spend our hard-earned cash on it.

But people have been talking about a new media revolution ever since the arrival of the IBM Home Computer in 1981 – so how do we know that it has arrived? The answer lies in the speed of uptake – for not only are truly interactive, multimedia devices now affordable and readily available, but they are also being snapped up in vast numbers.

The haves are now outweighing the have-nots and, like it or not, the media landscape has changed for good. The figures speak for themselves:

• There are now more than 60 million mobile phones in the UK and we spend more on our mobile phone bills than we do on our landlines.

• Today the computer games industry brings in more revenue than total UK cinema ticket sales.
• Two thirds of us are connected to the world wide web (half of them via broadband) and the same number have digital TV.

However, the traffic is not all one-way. While the Internet, broadband and digital technology have certainly transformed the way in which media content can be distributed, stored, shared, manipulated and consumed, ‘traditional’ media have thus far continued to dominate.

Television and radio are still the most consumed media. The average person in the UK watches 25 hours of TV per week and listens to about 17 hours of radio. Just because new devices have the potential to transform behaviour - that does not mean they will.

Nevertheless, media consumption habits are changing and there are signs that, driven largely by media-savvy younger generations, the pace of change is about to pick up.

The combination of market penetration, enhanced bandwidth and improved compression technology means that near-broadcast quality video and audio is now available in millions of homes in England. If people aren’t yet connected, the theory goes, then they soon will be.

The BBC in the new media age

What role then for a public service broadcaster in a world of self-scheduled, on-demand, and ‘Wiki’ (a series on-line media archives compiled and edited by everyday web users) media?

For a broadcaster like the BBC, it is a case of catering for the demand for new media technologies and new forms of content delivery or risk losing important chunks of the licence-fee paying audience. That is not to say that the Corporation will stop providing TV and radio programming – far from it – it just means a fresh approach to the delivery of those programmes.

While in recent years the BBC’s website has become one of the largest content-based portals on the planet, some more recent initiatives demonstrate the Beeb’s commitment to responding to changing consumer and market trends:

• Radio Player
Already hugely popular, the BBC’s internet Radio Player makes almost every BBC radio programme available live and on-demand for seven days after broadcast, creating a massive, ever-changing library of music, talk shows, dramas and documentaries.

Recent figures show that more than 10 million hours of BBC radio is consumed online per month. The great thing about Radio Player is that audiences are put in control of their listening, allowing them to listen at convenient times, control their schedules and fast-forward through programmes.

• ‘Mybbcplayer’ or ‘iMP’ (Interactive Media Player)
Currently on public trial, the iMP offers UK viewers the chance to catch up on TV and radio programmes they may have missed for up to seven days after they have been broadcast, using the internet to legally download programmes to their home computers.

A technical trial took place in 2004 with a limited number of participants and a small amount of rights-cleared programmes to test the concept of using peer-to-peer technology and digital rights management (DRM) to protect rights holders.

• The Creative Archive
The BBC Creative Archive, first announced by former BBC Director-General Greg Dyke at the Edinburgh Television Festival in August 2003 will allow people to download clips of BBC factual programmes, keep them on their PCs, manipulate and share them, so making the BBC's archives more accessible to licence fee payers.

You can find out more about any of these projects by going to bbc.co.uk and entering the search term in the space provided.

From Pub Idol to Pop Idol

Web feature / magazine feature: From Pub Idol to Pop Idol

Published: BBC Kent website Oct 2005 BBC County Life Magazine, 2005

For every Keane, Joss Stone and Jamie Cullum there are a thousand acts out there hoping to be the next big thing. Follow our simple advice and useful links for getting on in the music industry.

The path to getting signed is often a long and difficult one. Ask any 10 successful artists how they got to be where they are and they'll all have a different story.

For bands here in Kent, the story of Keane is a mouth-watering one: all three members of the group met at Tonbridge School and performed covers before beginning to write their own material. Fast forward to 2004 and their single ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ reaches number three in the UK charts – their album ‘Hopes and Fears’ has the world in the palm of their hand. Dream on…

Making the break
So what do you have to do to be the next big thing? Whatever you may have heard, making great music is still the best way to get on in the music business. If you’re not yet at the stage where you can persuade a handful of people to come and see you at the local pub – they why would a record label risk thousands of pounds on your act?

So before you jump the gun and approach EMI directly, concentrate on making great music and drumming up the sort of local support that will have the industry sniffing at your stage door.

Going solo
If you're a singer but don’t write your own material, then it’s always going to be hard because you’re reliant on creative partnerships which may not serve your own interests. However as a solo writer-performer, there are plenty of open mic nights where you can try out your own songs – you could even think about starting your own event.

Finding a manager

The question of whether or not you need a manager is a difficult one to answer. Obviously a manager will demand a cut of any act’s income so if you are scratching round and gigging on a pay-to-play basis, then it may be an expense too far. A manager has to risk working with you for free to start with, in the hope that they'll get their reward when you're successful. Most bands think they need a manager long before they actually do. Generally speaking, if you've got to the stage where you're ready for professional management then one will come and find you. In the mean time, you or a good friend could probably do most of the ‘managing’ yourselves.

Dos and don’ts of demos
Sending out demos at random to national radio stations and major labels will rarely get you anywhere. But if you do your homework and target individuals within key areas of the industry (starting local), then your demo could bear fruit – try using a music directory to track them down.

BBC Local Radio

If you are Kent-based, then you should send your demo to us here at BBC Kent. If we're impressed we'll give you some air-time on BBC Local Radio and also give you a page on the website. Each week the Dominic King show features three acts who write and perform their own music, but who are not yet signed to a major record label. So, if you are used to performing in front of small groups of friends and fans at pubs and clubs, you can now enjoy air-time on a radio station with a weekly reach of over a quarter of a million listeners (not to mention the huge potential audience listening over the Internet).

What's in a label?
Almost all successful bands start out by doing a small release on a local label before moving on to a bigger one. The simple truth is that if you can show that your music sells with limited promotional resources then it'll reassure a bigger label that you're worth the risk. Keane were first signed by London’s Fierce Panda Records before signing with Island, the label with Daniel Bedingfield, Lionel Richie and Mariah Carey on their books.

BBC Radio Kent: 'Kent's Unsigned'

In 2005, I launched a new radio and web item called 'Kent's Unsigned', offering air-time and webspace to unsigned artists in Kent.

[Real Media files]

Kent's Unsigned: 2nd Dec 2005

Kent's Unsigned: 25th Nov 2005

Kent's Unsigned: 18th Nov 2005

Kent's Unsigned: 11th Nov 2005

Kent's Unsigned: 4th Nov 2005

Kent's Unsigned: 28th Oct 2005

Kent's Unsigned: 21st Oct 2005

Kent's Unsigned: 14th Oct 2005

Kent's Unsigned: 7th Oct 2005

BBC Radio Kent: 'Webworld'

In 2003 I launched a radio segment on BBC Radio Kent, talking about the wonderful world of the web.
[Wav files]

6th Feb 2003

15 May 2003

BBC Radio Kent: audio

News reports broadcast on BBC Radio Kent [2003 - 2005]
(Wav or Real Media files)

Guidedog 070103
Derr 140103
Gunpowder 210703
Speedferries 100803
Hamstreet 120803
Grafitti 130803
Flies 150803
Royal Irish 030903
Westbury 040903
Reunion 111003

Police Chief 050104
Housing 070104
Imiela rape trial 040304
Imiela: Kent Police inteview 040304
Swimming 110404

Kent Music Festival 2005
Teaching Awards 300605

BBC Radio Kent - News Reader

In 2003/4, I worked as a Broadcast Journalist and News Reader for BBC Radio Kent. Here you'll find links to a few audio examples of news bulletins 

Kent During World War II

Web feature: Kent During WW2

Published: BBC Peoples War and bbc.co.uk/kent, 2003

Kent played a pivotal role in many of the most salient offensive and defensive operations of the Second World War. Read our potted history of a county in conflict.

At times of continental conflict, Kent is used to being on the front line. This was especially true during World War Two, as the county's proximity to German-occupied territory burdened it with a responsibility and hardship never experienced before.

The region played a part in some of the most decisive moments of the war, including the Dunkirk evacuation, the Battle of Britain and the preparations for D-Day. But the county also suffered greatly. Almost incessant bombing raids left their devastating mark on Kent's landscape, which for years was a place of sandbags, shelters and blackouts.

Operation Dynamo, 1940
With the British and French armies cornered by the advancing German army near Dunkirk in 1940, Kent became the focus of the nation's attention as, between 26 May and 3 June, more than 330,000 troops were rescued from the beaches in one of the most astonishing operations of the war.

Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay masterminded Operation Dynamo from a bunker deep within the Dover cliffs. All available seaworthy craft in Kent, or the 'Little Ships' as they became affectionately known, were assembled in Sheerness dockyard before making the hazardous crossing in flotillas to Dunkirk.

Dover was the busiest of the berthing ports during the frantic seven days of the evacuation. Here, ships were unloaded and refuelled before returning to the French coast, while trains shuttled the arriving soldiers away from the coast.

Battle of Britain, 1940
The summer of 1940 was to be one of the most critical periods of the war. With a German invasion of southern Britain planned for September, the Luftwaffe embarked on a heavy bombardment of the county's airfields, harbours and naval bases to clear the way for invasion forces.


The Battle of Britain, as it became known, was fought in the skies above Kent's orchards, fields and villages, and it was here that Hitler's invasion plans were first stalled, and then put off indefinitely. During the period between 12 August and 15 September 1940, wave after wave of German fighters and bombers attacked targets in Kent, and the countryside became littered with the debris of fighter aircraft from both sides.

Pilots based at Biggin Hill, Manston, Lympne, Hawkinge, Eastchurch, Rochester and Detling worked tirelessly to repel the might of the Luftwaffe, as did the men and women on the ground - the gunners, radar operators, WAAFs and airfield crews.


By early September, Fighter Command's resources were stretched to the limit, but after the losses inflicted on the Luftwaffe on 15 September, the fiercest day of fighting, Hitler decided to postpone the invasion 'until further notice'. In the skies of this late Kentish summer, those whom Churchill called 'the few' had delivered one of the greatest victories of the war. Churchill said of this period: 'If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour".

Bombings
Kent's towns were bombed throughout the war and casualties on the ground were often heavy in spite of the fact that thousands of people went underground to avoid the raids.

On 1 June 1942, Canterbury suffered a particularly heavy attack as high explosives and incendiary bombs were dropped on the city for 75 minutes. Hundreds of historic buildings were destroyed and entire streets flattened or burned. Miraculously, the cathedral was spared.

Ramsgate, Folkestone and Dover were under almost constant attack, as for much of the war the Germans had effective control of the Channel, shelling the Kent coast indiscriminately. Such was the intensity of fighting around Britain's frontline coastal towns that the area became known as 'Hellfire Corner'.

In June 1944, the first of almost 1,500 flying bombs, or Doodlebugs, began to fall on the county. Kent once again found itself on the front line and the RAF, gunners and balloon handlers fought hard to limit the damage on the ground. At the end of 1944, V2 rockets were fired on the county, again with devastating consequences.

Operation Fortitude
In the build-up to D-Day, Kent became the stage for one of the most elaborate deceptions of the war, Operation Fortitude. To convince the Germans that the Allied invasion of North West Europe would start in the Pas de Calais area, a vast dummy army was assembled in the county. Roads and bridges were built, army manoeuvres held and dummy landing craft, aircraft, tanks and military vehicles created.

At midnight on 5 June, a mock invasion was launched from Dover. Balloons, reflectors and smoke were carried across the Channel by motor launches to give the impression of a huge convoy, while the real invasion, Operation Overlord, was delivering 185,000 troops to the Normandy coast. The deception played a vital part in the success of D-Day, detaining huge German divisions in the Calais area.

Travel description: igluvillas.com [2000]

Costa de la luz
[Published: igluvillas.com, 2000]

To say that the Costa de la Luz boasts the most magnificent beaches in the whole of Spain is no exaggeration. Washed by the Atlantic Ocean, virtually the entire coastline, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Portuguese border, is fringed by mile upon mile of fine golden sand.

Tight control on development means that these expansive beaches are not compromised by intensive tourism; instead they are lined by sand dunes and marshland, by farmland and dense pine forests and by vast fields of sunflowers and rolling pastures.

To mention simply the coastal beaches of the Costa de la Luz would be to do the area a great injustice since stunning national parks and forests grace the interior. The Donana Reserve is Europe’s most extensive wildlife sanctuary while Cadiz and Barbate play host vast colonies of sea birds: terns, egrets and flamingos.

Cádiz was once Spain's most important trading port with the Americas. And the old town, set on a headland in the sea, is simply breathtaking. The faded grandeur of the ancient streets are wonderful for shopping, eating and sampling some of the local sherry.

Tarifa is an enchanting little town with plenty of character nd well wort a visit. This is where Mediterranean meets Atlantic and where Europe meets Africa – in fact you can be in Tangiers within 30 minutes.