A peaceful village wedding and the biggest military bombardment in history, taking place simultaneously… The first wedding bells and the first shots of World War II rang out as Hitler invaded Poland and spoiled an ancestor’s runaway wedding. It was a Friday like no other in the history of our family and the history of the world. By Terry […]

I guess it was near 7:00 pm UK time when I heard the news flash on my car radio. President John F Kennedy had been shot in Dallas at 12:30 pm Texas time and that meant tight deadlines in Darlington. I was 20 miles from the offices where I’d just been entrusted with the editorship […]

My very own Aphrodite was standing next to me in the glistening sea. We had just a few more minutes until sunrise. I was hands-on with a naked Goddess of Love, getting more Max Factor Panstik onto her white bits with a sponge and then spreading it evenly to match the surrounding suntanned body. She […]

Visionary, Andreas Kaisis lost his booming businesses as Turkey invaded and stripped Cyprus of its most lucrative tourist and industrial assets, including his vehicle manufacturing factory, still trapped in a post-war no man’s land… But with good church connections and strategic landholdings, this swanky stargazer has recovered his lost fortunes and soared into his nation’s […]

Trouble was brewing, even in the remote Troodos Mountains. In 1974 I witnessed the first signs of events that would see us bombed out of Cyprus and change it forever. Soon there would be rebellion, invasion, ethnic conflict, deaths and an occupying United Nations peace-keeping force that’s still on patrol 50 years later. By Terry […]

When Italian business people go for an impromptu night out on the tiles in a famed gastronomic city it comes with a Sicilian corker and tableside performances… However, what happened afterwards provided “la ciliegina sulla torta” for the diners. by Terry Walker AS06042024 9 minute read From My Life, in Words | Bottle image, courtesy […]

A Samaritan sea captain saved my ancestor, a Russian Imperial Army draft dodger with Cossack bounty hunters hot on his trail. My great-grandfather Jacob fled with his 12-year-old wife-to-be, Rachel and her daughter Leah, a baby in arms not yet a year old. by Terry Walker AS01030724 11 minute read From My Life, in Words […]

An act of chivalry becomes a bomb scare and a unique moment in family history with repercussions that stop just short of a hanging… A historic event, for surely the mighty fortress Tower of London has never been abandoned to its fate? By Terry Walker 03032024 8 minute read from My Life, in Words Two […]

A family’s history can take many different turns down through time. My “turning” was already mapped out when, as a determined 16-year-old I arrived at the crossroads and changed direction without any hesitation. I was on the road to a career I had dreamed about for a long time… I had converted a summer office […]

Did you ever have a bad day? I mean, a really, really bad day? In western Cyprus, one particular September day turned out to be not only bad but could have been fatal…except for a bit of luck and happenstance. Here’s the true story of a lifesaving tomb rescue from a prehistoric necropolis. There are […]