Stuart McLeay

Category: Hidden tales

  • Letters to Lizzie (WW2)

    DRAFT IN PROGRESS. The wartime letters transcribed below were written by my father Ted McLeay to his mother Lizzie between 1939 and 1945. This first batch (the first 53 out of 160) covers his initial RAF service in England 1939/42. The letters that have yet to be transcribed were sent when Ted was on operations…

  • Imagining the Itinerary in “My Father’s House” by Joseph O’Connor

    Before the occupation of Rome in the second world war, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty would take the occasional brisk walk across the city from his residence in the Vatican’s Collegio Teutonico (1). On hot days, he would stop for an orange juice at a bar on the Via del Portico d’Ottavia (2) and then carry on…

  • Anthony Hordern Jingles

    Compiled from Hordern‘s advertising jingles in Sand’s Directory 1898-1904 ANTHONY HORDERN’S FOR ANYTHING FROM A NEEDLE TO AN ANCHOR Plumbers’ tools and boxwood rules, Linen cuffs and broidered ruffs, Writing inks and enamelled sinks, Pretty fans and all sorts of cans, Napkin holders and paper folders, Bridal bonnets and books of sonnets. It’s the people’s…

  • The Market for Oranges

    This story dates back to the 1970s when I was working as a lending officer in Rome. One of my tasks was to evaluate applications for small business loans in the Mezzogiorno, including the islands of Sardinia and Sicily. That was when I learned about the market for Sicilian oranges. The different varieties were usually…