London, City of Espionage

This post is part of my City of Espionage series started earlier this year, about, well, cities associated with espionage and intelligence world in both fiction and the real world. This series is itself a part of a broader series of posts about spy thrillers. Today is about London. Of course, London is famous for being the residence and office base of the most famous fictitious secret agent in the world. But he is not the only secret agent that lives in London when he is not on a mission. Of course, London is the city where the headquarters of SIS/MI6 are. Also called Vauxhall Cross. Impressive piece of architecture, which unfortunately I haven't seen in real life just yet. It's in my bucket list. If I can ever take pictures of Vauxhall Cross (one never knows, with the intelligence community), I will share them here. In any case, just because of the MI6 Building, London deserves to be mentioned as a city of espionage. Obviously, it's also an essential centre for the intelligence community.

Boîte téléphonique anglaise

Photo prise il y a quelques mois, à la fin mars je crois, dans un petit village pas très loin de chez nous. Nous y étions allés à pied. Ce genre de boîtes téléphoniques, si typique de l'Angleterre, on ne les retrouve pas si souvent de nos jours. En fait, elle servent àpour faire joli pour les touristes plus qu'autre chose. Quand même, je partage, justement parce que c'est joli et typique de mon pays d'adoption. Et ça a un charme. Un charme désuet, mais un charme quand même.

Legends

 I found another great crime series on Netflix and I wanted to share it/plug it here: Legends. It's both a crime drama and a true crime documentary, as it is based on true events: the heroin trade of the early nineties in the UK and the combat against it by a team formed by border officers. A ragtag bunch of misfits as the trope is called. I love ragtags bunch of misfits, especially in crime fiction, even more when they had an origin in real life. I might blog about the trope one day, but I digress. You have two fairly rarely seen (at least in fiction) mob groups as the antagonists, one from Liverpool, the other from Turkey. Anyway, I cannot stress how solid the series is and I cannot recommend it enough.

Secret Service

Since the beginning of 2026, or almost, I have been binge watching spy thrillers. It seems to be my new pastime: watch and read spy fiction. And I found one recently in ITV that I wanted to mention here: Secret Service. It's with Gemma Aterton, a former Bond girl who made quite a nice little career since then. She is not my favourite actress, but I like her. She plays Kate Henderson, an MI6 agent in charge of the Russian desk, who finds out that one of the candidates for the position of UK prime minister might be a Russian mole. But she doesn't know which one. It's nothing too original, it has a few plot holes and you need to suspend your disbelief at times, but it's a solid and fairly well written thriller nonetheless. So yes, if you are living in the UK, I suggest you give it a go.

Eurostar Journeys

 I took this picture last year at the National Railway Museum in York. I am sharing it today as it suits the topic. My wife and I (well, her mostly) are planning our enxt holiday and we were considering Paris. I am not too keen on it, having been there so often in the past, but Wolfie would love to see the city. There is one thing however that I would be looking for, should we settle for Paris: traveling via the Eurostar. It's been long overdue. All train travels are exciting to me, but there is something about going under the sea like this, in the comfort of a train. The Eurostar is a holiday experience in itself.

Where's the snow?

Since we got back here from our holidays, there has been some snow early January, then nothing. As in: nothing. It's been quite disheartening. There were a few snow forecast, here and there, of course snow fell up North, but here in the South, nothing happened, even when there were chances of snow fall. As winter is passing through, way faster than I care for, I hope we will get some snow before long, like a proper snow day when we have to stay in. I say "I hope", but I am beyond hope now. I will believe it when I see it.

The snow followed us

I was happily surprised two days ago, the day after we got back home: it seems that the snow has followed us. yes, as weird as it sounds, it snowed in the UK. Sadly, not so much in South East England, but it's better than nothing. That's how much they can receive to be able cope with it. And it calm my homesickness somewhat. Oh if January in England looked like this every year!

Radio Times ('Tis the season to be watching)

 It is a sight I always look for in shops this time of year: the Christmas edition of Radio Times! Because, as I said it before and as I am saying it again now: 'tis the season to be watching, falala lalaaaa... I buy it every year, except when we don't celebrate it in the UK, although even then I would be tempted to buy it anyway, just for the sheer pleasure of owning it and reading it. There are always interesting festive articles and interviews. This year, you may be surprised to know that I will not buy it. Because yes, we are going away. All the same, I love seeing Radio Times in the shops. It makes me feel Christmasssee.

Bradley's Railway Guide

We went to the local bookshop today, just for a quick stop to see if we could find any present ideas for Christmas. Yes, it's early, but Christmas will come soon enough and it's nice to be prepared. Within two minutes, I saw two books about trains that I would love to have. One of them being Bradley's Railway Guide. My wife told me: "You are really too easy to buy presents for." I think it deserves to be a new great unknown line, although she might have said it before. In any case, a quick visit to the local bookshop should get her sorted regarding my presents.

Snake Alert!

 Here's some critter news which I wanted to share and blog about: there are snakes on the loose in England! To be more precise, the RSPCA has issued a warning about escaped pet snakes. You don't read that every day, not in this country in any case. There has been an increase in sighting of snakes, they even found bona fide pythons in Lincolnshire! Something came to my mind about the story: if some of these serpents remain in the wild and survive long enough, they might be mistaken for other creatures and we might have new cryptids. But this is my imagination talking. All the same, this country is now on a Snake Alert.

Lincoln Green

I recently learned something new recently, reading about Robin Hood. I think it does not come as something to your average Englishman, but hey, as anglophile as I have always been, I was not aware of this, or if I have been in the past, I had forgotten it. So yeah, anyway, the sort of green that wears Robin Hood and his Merry men is called Lincoln green. Please tell me you didn't know that, so I won't be too embarrassed. It is actually an authentic medieval colour, created in the Middle Ages, originating from Lincoln. Because yes, they had discovered colours back then and and they dyed their clothes when they could. It has always irritated me when Robin Hood doesn't wear green in some adaptations. You probably now the ones I'm referring to. Anyway, so Lincoln green is the word of the day.

Train Travelogue

Sometimes, I think I have a special psychic bound with the local bookshop. I went there a few days ago, a quick stop with Wolfie, and lo and behond, I got face to cover with this book, Slow Trains Around Britain. I did not buy it, but it took me all my willpower. That said, I took a picture asa reminder, because I want to put it on my Christmas or birthday wish list. If I can last that long. The front cover mentions that it is a "charming travelogue", and I think I buy it to read for our next Uk holiday.

Looking for maypoles

Now we are two days into the month of may, and I haven't seen any maypole yet anywhere. You may remember (you may, ha, ha, ha, that is one bad pun) that I have been looking for them since at least 2016. Because I am interested in folklore and I love when old traditions are still in practice. But sadly, they are nowhere to be seen, except in books about folklore and traditions. So like every year, I will keep looking for maypoles, hopefully I can find one nearby, take afew snapshots and share it on the this blog. If you live in England and know of a place where they display maypoles, especially if it is in the South, round Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, please let me know in the comments section.

Camel Trophy Jeep

 I took this picture last year, during a fayre in the local park (a sort of autumn festival, but I digress). There were lots of army vehicles on display. I know nothing about Camel Trophy, but I find jeeps and army vehicles kind of cool. I mean jeeps look cool, but from the few trips I had in them, they are utterly uncomfortable. So it's kind of fitting to label one a camel: they both go in difficult terrains, they both are tough, they both are uncomfy. Well, I can only assume camels are not comfortable, I must confess I have never traveled on one. Tell me if you experienced either this particular Land Rover or a camel.

Lynx in the Scottish Highlands

I just learned that four lynx have been illegally released in the Scottish Highlands. Of them, two have been recaptured. Releasing them was of coursea terrible idea, as the article explains. That said, I hope they release legally and responsibly lynx in Scotland in the future. Because it struck me that the land and the animal go well together. And this bit of news made me think of something else: I wonder if the many tales and sighting of cryptid wildcats that abound in the UK are not caused by such illegal release, accidental or intentional, of wild animals like these lynx.

Greenwich

 I recently made an observation about the new year. In fact, it is an observation I keep making every time we celebrate it in the UK, which is now pretty much my reality: living in England, we enter the new year at the same time as the Greenwich meridian. Which is of course historically THE standard prime time, THE staple to calculate time, so to speak. In a way, England is the center of the world when it comes to count time. It is purely anecdotal, but it always comes to my mind round the new year.

Radio Times ('tis the season to be watching)

 'Tis the season to be watching, fa, la, la, lala. Yesterday, I went to the show and saw the Christmas' Radio Times! I bought it immediately. I don't watch all that much television during the holidays, but I do like to take some time to watch some seasonal programming, I want to know what's on, and besides I enjoy Radio Times for its many articles and interviews. It's just a way for me to embrace British culture this time of year. We don't have snow during Christmastime, or very rarely, but at least we have quality television.

Haunted Pubs

 I noticed something about the countdown to Halloween this year (so far): I haven't blogged all that much about scary stories. I am not sure wh. Maybe I have read them rather slowly this year, instead of binging on them like I often do. But horror stories, spooky stories are generally the main focus of this blog come October. It also struck me that England is maybe the best place to find inspiration for scary stories, the local folklore being often filled with stories of the supernatural and hauntings. Now I don't believe in the supernatural, but I think locallegends can make up for great starting points to write horror. I stumbled tonight on this article about South Bucks most haunted pubs. I haven't been to any of them, as far as I can remember, however some of them are not too far and I would love to go there and get a feel of the places. Maybe I could come up with my own ghost stories. Traditional pubs and inns are great places for hauntings, as they are so atmospheric to begin with.

I saw a Rolls-Royce

 The topic of this post is pretty much what it says on the tin: I saw a Rolls-Royce recently. We were walking back from downtown, crossing the street, and I saw the Rolls-Royce in question, waiting for us the get through the zebra crossing. I have seen plenty of BMWs round here, a few Alpha Romeos, a few Jaguars, and a couple of other luxury cars too, but this was the first Rolls-Royce I spotted in this town since I came here. As a child, growing up on the other side of the Atlantic and being ridiculously anglophile for some reason, I always loved that brand. For me, it was the quintessential, Britishest of all British cars. Rolls-Royce looked and sounded elegant, strong, fancy, gentlemanly. I remember the very first time I saw one in the flesh (metal?), during my first trip to England. It got me so excited. So yes, I recognised it right away. And I sitll got a shiver of excitement seeing one so close.

Tea for Father's Day

 I blogged late in May about New English Teas. My wife bought me a metal box of it, just for the image on the tin. But the tea turned out to taste great. And I drank it all within a month. So she bought me this for Father's Day. And two jars of them, as it was a two for one. I am stocked in tea for a while. But I'm not going to complain: this is my fuel. I found the present inspired, not only because I am a tea drinker, but because I am the father of a little Englishman who is very proud of it. For now, Wolfie is too young to drink tea with me, but it should come soon enough.