The voice on the other end of the phone needs convincing. Amir Zarbafi has spoken to the Mercury three times already – why, he says, do you need another interview? It’s the advert in Saturday’s property guide, he’s told, a full-page invitation to “meet the most controversial developer to hit…
Wymondham is a pretty village six miles east of Melton Mowbray. It boasts a windmill, 12th century St Peter’s Church and the ever so lovely The Berkeley Arms, where the food and welcome is always amazing. The village was also home to Frances Pawlett, the person who pioneered Stilton and…
Mr Azim Walters is a defence lawyer with a handsome office at 58 London Road, but, as you may be aware, his Georgian building, along with neighbouring properties at 52, 54 and 56, are now on borrowed time. “We don’t want it demolished, for historic reasons,” he says. Set…
And there I was, clearing my throat, hocking up as much snot as I could, making that awful clawing noise which sends many a person queasy of stomach, and then I stopped in my tracks. The sign on the wall in the ladies toilets in the Market Place…
Newish among the artillery of the National Trust is an Arts and Crafts family home nestled in the scenic folds of Charnwood Forest. “This is the postcard shot, really,” grins Joe Thompson, the head gardener, as he leads us down the proverbial garden path, past a crest of heather…
There’s a smidge of a lady talking in the middle of The Smiths’ Pretty Girls Make Graves. “Oh, really?” says the voice. And that’s it. Many years later and the identity of that voice’s owner is still adding intrigue to numerous Smiths’ biographies. Each time, the writer invariably points…
A century ago the world was at war. Leicester and Leicestershire’s boys and men were packed off to the Front. Here’s a feature which gives you a little taste of where we were in 1915, although do remember that not all of our lot would have served in the…
He is Leicester’s head man, giving the biggest say so in the city every day of the week. And, let’s be honest, Sir Peter Soulsby could quite easily get a warm seat in an executive box or the director’s box at the King Power. With the other people…
With vandals on one side and the elements on the other, Western Park School – formerly Western Park Open Air School – has taken a bit of a kicking in recent years. Shut in 2005, this elegant 1930s building – Grade II listed and one of very…
“Always and always facing toward the light.” They’ve not seen Poltergeist, have they? Here are some magnificent suffragists standing proud in Bowling Green Street. I don’t know their names but I’d like to buy each of them a drink. Which they’d most likely turn down, cos they’re probably part…
Take Mr Henry Lee, the verger of St Peter’s Church in Leicester. Add Professor GF Moss, who had consulting rooms at 70 Sparkenhoe Street. And then throw in photographer Mr HJ Hitchcock to take a picture. What do you get? The answer is this rather spiffy advert…
Here are a few piccies I took on my walk to work on Tuesday. The first is on West Bridge (Decorated with Chaucer’s characters, fave is Wife of Bath), looking at the river and over to Castle Gardens. There was a load of graffiti on the…
Sometimes she’ll find herself alone in the middle of a deep forest. In the dream, she’s a shivering nine-year-old girl again, searching for mushrooms and berries. It’s then, as she hunts for food among the trees, she’ll be gripped by an old terror. You’re lost, says the panicked voice in…
You don’t need me to tell you this, but Old John, a chubby stone tower that looks a lot like a beer tankard, is Leicestershire’s most iconic landmark. This photogenic enigma has been crowning the highest, rockiest peak in the tumbling, well-loved acres of Bradgate Park since the autumn…
Fat doesn’t really cover it. Nor does chubby or rotund. Daniel Lambert was fat in the way Mozart was a composer. Known throughout the British Isles for his spectacular girth and even, believe it or not, admired for it Dan was a horizon-blocking 52 stone 11lbs. For generations, children and adults…
The headliners Sienna Root were rocktastic organic man-flesh from Sweden. The Cult of Dom Keller were a Leicester-Nottingham hybrid with an awesome drummer. And my oldest mate Ben, representing Western Park, and to some extent Hinckley, did the opening Moog atmospherics under the moniker The Early Remains. Oh,…
Graham Chapman helped make the world a much sillier place. The Life of Graham, a new book about the pipe-smoking Python, retreads his formative years in the county. Graham Chapman was the Leicestershire-born hero of British comedy. One-sixth of trail-blazing surrealists Monty Python, the pipe-smoking Chapman was…
Mick Bunnage is a dream interviewee. The former musician, Loaded writer, cartoonist and Leicester resident has an unerring habit of making the mundane seem peculiarly jocular. Even when he’s trying to pronounce the address of his old stomping ground in Belgrave. “Leer-rah Street,” he hazards. “Leer-eh?” He…
