The Steeple Times

Until 1976, you could walk into a shop in London, England called Harrods and buy a lion, a camel, or an elephant. In 1969, two young Australians named John Rendall and Ace Bourke walked in and bought a three-month-old lion cub. They named him Christian. He lived with them above a furniture shop, played in local gardens, and rode around the city in the back of a convertible. When he outgrew London, they flew him to Kenya, where a conservationist named George Adamson released him into the wild in the Kora National Reserve. A year later, the two men flew back to find him. Adamson warned them Christian was now fully wild and might not remember them. Despite being the head of a wild pride, Christian recognised them immediately and ran to greet them. The reunion was filmed, and the footage has since been viewed over 100 million times. Christian was last seen in early 1973, heading north. He was never seen again.

Remember when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrived late at the Mountbatten Festival of Music 2020 at the Royal Albert Hall and treated the applause like it was for their grand entrance? The audience was already giving a standing ovation to the Royal Marines Band Service & Harry giving that little wave, both of them nodding and Meghan grinning as if they were acknowledging their own applause… when it had absolutely nothing to do with them🤭 It just screamed misplaced self-importance and turned into one of those classic secondhand embarrassment moments 😭

Ian Richardson [as Francis Urquhart] born 7th April 1934. Perhaps the best Prime Minister we never had. “You might very well think that; I couldn’t possibly comment.”

Princess Diana in 1985 with her custom Ford Escort RS Turbo.

genuinely crazy that Ronan Farrow, the (alleged) lovechild of Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra (Mia Farrow's ex-husband Woody Allen is on the birth certificate as his father🤣😭) is probably the best investigative journalist of our era

Our little home. Bought in 1982 for £28,000. Just a modest family home in Surrey with a bit of a garden. I remember picking up extra shifts at the post office that summer to save for the deposit. We were so young. Apparently it's worth £1.5 million now but to us it's just home. 🏡

My London

Here's a new essay, which an Eastertide theme can possibly be read into. As is by now traditional, I ask all kind souls to provide the link to it in replies. Moreover, as these naive attempts to publicize my writing are increasingly muted by X, please, like and repost if you can.

Sad news today with the passing of Nick Pope. For many of you, he was one of the most recognizable voices in the world of UFOs. Coming from his time at the UK Ministry of Defence, he brought a level of credibility and grounded perspective to a subject that often struggles to be taken seriously. I had the chance to meet Nick in his early days of UFO conferences, and I always found him to be polite, approachable, and genuinely likeable. A lot of people, myself included, will have come across his work at some point in our journey. Rest in piece Nick

And now I’m here in one of my favourite London pubs. The Nag’s Head in Belgravia. Owned by an ex guardsman who hates most of his customers and makes up the price of the drink depending on how much he dislikes you. I love him! Great bloke. Sadly, he’s not in today for first time since I’ve been coming here, but that does mean I managed to take these photos. If he’d been here I’d have been thrown out the second I lifted my phone. The world is a better place with characters like him. Cheers 🥂

Potentially the most gangster interview response in the world of literature