On November 22, 1963, as The Beatles performed in Stockton-on-Tees, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. That night, Beatlemania was in full force; the Beatles performed amidst fan hysteria, leading to many fainting. The release of their second album “With the Beatles” earlier that day had marked exceptional sales. An interview with the band was difficult due to…

This amazing story reveals enduring links with The Beatles, Sixties songwriter Mitch Murray and 84,000 Isle of Man residents whose lifeline ferry service faced a Perfect Storm. by Terry Walker AS28082014 8 minute read from My Life, in Words The sea ferry company serving the tax haven Isle of Man is the oldest in the […]

Last outpost saves Jesus of Nazareth’s mother tongue. Aramaic was the language spoken at the time of Jesus and is still in the remote mountains of ancient Syria. It was the mother tongue of Jesus, his disciples, and most people who attended their gigs. It has survived wars and changing dynasties and remains the language […]

A family’s ancestry can take many different turns through time. My “turning” came when, as a determined 16-year-old, I arrived at the crossroads and changed direction without hesitation. I had two feet on the ladder in journalism, and our family history was mapped out. I was on the road to a career I had dreamt […]

A fire revealed an ancestors’ long-held secret. There were surprising revelations when a family history researcher discovered the secret of Peterboat Inn, which her innkeeping ancestors owned. What they had been up to for 300 years at the River Thames fishing village was finally exposed in a 150-year-old official forensic report on the blaze recently […]

Every family history is unique and the brutal bar brawl detailed in this seaman’s story came after a month of fierce Atlantic gales that drove Tyne-based cargo boats hundreds of miles off-course, flying the signal “Not under command” because “we could just not steer”… by Bob Harrison AS8042024 8 minute read They were heading for […]

Stargazer tycoon 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 now, 50 years on, this swanky visionary has soared into his nation’s Rich List galaxy. His good church connections […]

I had requested a camel train to take us across the Syrian Desert to Palmyra, the hometown of the legendary Queen Zenobia, whose ancestry is unclear. She may have been raised as the daughter of her brother, who had married the widow of her father, who was the brother of them both. Palmyra was an […]

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 […]

A secret agent served Britain and four terror groups in 1950s Cyprus but 30 years later he discovered how his multiple PSYOP roles brought peace to the strife-torn island of spies, Cyprus. Armed with a 9mm Sten sub-machine gun and a pistol he was ever-ready for action, but never fired a shot in anger. by […]

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

A fairy tale grand hotel that welcomed Royalty became haunted after the mysterious deaths of guests and the three brothers who owned it. The Berengaria Hotel in Cyprus has been padlocked and decaying for 40 years and now ghosts have secured five stars for the totally derelict hotel. Ghostbuster tourists, who provide 5-star rankings on […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The kidnap, torture and heinous murder of farm labourer Richard Hawkins in 1748 sent a vicious smuggler gang to the gallows. The crime marked the beginning of the end for the most notorious smugglers operating along England’s South Coast. Within a year, the Hawkhurst Gang had added two more murders and large amounts of “back-door […]

He could still hear the shouts of the pursuing Cossack troops as he waded out into the cold sea, his long woollen underwear clinging to his strong body. Soon the rocky beach slipped from under his feet and he began to swim out to sea. Away on his right, he could just make out the […]

Gone to the Costas, but the unique Isle of Man could win back tourists lost to sunnier destinations like Spain, Italy and Greece by marketing its many “differences”. There’s a colony of “Little People” at Fairy Bridge and a 1,000-year lineage back to the ruling Vikings to differentiate the island and spearhead a tourism revival. […]