It was 16 August 1977 and my family and I were driving back from a holiday in Scotland. My dad stopped at a petrol station to fill up and my brother and I jumped out of the car to use the facilities. When I came out of the toilets, my mother was sitting in the front seat, sobbing uncontrollably and my dad was smiling apologetically at the attendant.
‘What’s wrong mum?’ I asked.
She was too overcome to speak and simply pointed a shaky finger at a newspaper billboard: THE KING IS DEAD.
‘But we have a queen, not a king,’ I said.
‘Not a real king,’ said my dad, bundling my brother and I back into the car. ‘Elvis Presley. The King of Rock ‘n Roll.’ Continue reading ‘The King is Dead - the Cult of Elvis Worship’
It’s rumoured that Bill Clinton is one of their descendents, but the gypsies of Yetholm on the Scottish and Northumberland border have more than an American president to their name. We look back on the lineage of one of Britain’s less known royal families.
You may be an American searching for your roots, or just a local, enjoying the country air, but if, like many ramblers walking the Cheviots you stop off to have a pint at Town Yetholm’s only watering hole, you will notice a photo gallery of some of the Border town’s more colourful historic residents. These are the Gypsies of Yetholm.
Picture courtesy of Yetholm Historical Society
Continue reading ‘The Last of the Gypsy Royals’
North East England, like the rest of Europe in the 17th Century, has a shameful history that it would like to hide. But with Halloween just a short broomstick ride away I’ve started hunting for the old witches of Northumbria and found a cauldron-full of dirty secrets.
If you’re out Riding Mill way and decide to take a walk over the old bridge, make sure you’re not alone. And if it’s a clear night with a full moon think twice about going out at all lest you stumble across a coven of witches dancing naked to Diana’s light. But if you insist, don’t blame us if you fall under their evil spell, and do things you would not normally do. Continue reading ‘Witch Hunt’
On 23 February 1807 the British Parliament voted to abolish the Transatlantic slave trade after 245 years of profiting from human misery. Fiona Veitch Smith asks why it takes Christians so long to act in favour of just causes. Continue reading ‘Abolition of the transatlantic slave trade’
Welcome to my site - I'm Fiona Veitch Smith, a freelance journalist, author, playwright and writing teacher. This site contains thoughts and articles I've written on a range of topics. I hope you find them useful.
Tainted Gold - Olympic scandals and triumphs
As I write this, the Olympic Flame has just been lit opening the 29th Modern Olympic Games. The first Olympic flame was lit at the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928 and the Torch Relay was added to the ceremony in Berlin, 1936, at ‘Hitler’s Olympics’. It was not in the original vision of the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin, in 1896, but he welcomed it as a powerful religious and artistic symbol that could be used to educate people in the ideals of the Olympic movement.
Image courtesy of Rick Sforza
These ideals, according to the Olympic Charter, are to
Nothing wrong with that, you would agree, but as the pro-Tibet demonstrators would have us remember, there is a huge gap between that ideal and the practise of the host nation in its occupied territory.
Continue reading ‘Tainted Gold - Olympic scandals and triumphs’