Loaghtan Books

Some blog posts are inconsequential or frivolous, but this one is serious. For 140 years horse trams have been clip-clopping up and down Douglas front.  They are unique.  No-one else in the world has such a survival - even the stables are original and the only working tramway stables left in the world.  And you can't find transport which is much more 'green'.  They've taken visitors and luggage to hotels, kiddies for rides, passengers from the MER at Derby Castle to the shops in town. Now they can't. Despite a Tynwald resolution that they should continue the full length of the promenade, the track still starts at Derby Castle but has been truncated at the bottom of Broadway (about half-way along).  At one stroke, the horse trams have stopped being a useful connexion between distant points - travelling from the north of the island we used them all the time - and become merely a plaything. The powers-that-be seem reluctant to put in place what Tynwald voted for, so th

Another long silence - sorry about that.  The junior partner hurt her ankle and, while doing an excellent impersonation of Long John Silver, the mobility difficulties meant that everything took a much longer time. The plane pictured is not a recent addition to the Loaghtan Books fleet of vehicles, but did do a fly past over Queen's Pier Ramsey to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.  Coincidentally it also flew past the office windows on its way in. Poseidon is the Greek god of the sea and is an appropriate name for the new RAF maritime patrol plane.  The eagle-eyed among you might just be able to make out that, although it looks like a Boeing 737, and is indeed based on the 737 design, the plane has no windows, being full of very expensive equipment. In the Isle of Man, Poseidon would of course be Manannan.

There aren't many offices where car rallys regularly run past the front door.  The vehicles are usually too fast (and too close) to photograph well, though, hence the stamp. I can understand why rally drivers like the area.  There are loads of small, twisty, steep roads to challenge even the best drivers.  Many end up in the neighbouring fields, presumably unintentionally.  If they're very unlucky they arrive in the field upside down. Sometimes 'our' road is closed, so we have to arrange access to the premises to avoid the closure.  Manx delivery drivers are quite used to organising their route to avoid sporting events. Sometimes, however, the road is still open.  Postal vans arrive, staff turn up, and tourists come to observe.  Rally drivers have to be aware of (and avoid) other road users including camper vans, pedestrians - we have no pavement - horses, chickens (feral), hares and the occasional wallaby. It couldn't happen anywhere else.

 Above is Dreemskerry Quarry in the snow.  It's just up the road from the office.  It's actually quite small but looks almost alpine here. No longer a working quarry it is occasionally used for motorbike trials and is also home to a colony of feral cockerels.  Their previous owner kept the hens, as they provide eggs, but the cockerels were non productive (no comments please, ladies) so were 'freed' (aka dumped) in the quarry.  The Isle of Man has no foxes so the birds seem to be doing quite well.  They do appear to have the occasional rowdy party, however, as we can sometimes hear crowing from the office.  Local residents are less than happy at the occasional wake-up call at five in the morning. The island gets very little snow as a rule, but, like most of the north of Britain, had its share today.  The office is sheltered from all but an east wind, but, as that's what it was, we came to work to find the windows plastered with stuck-on snow.  It was like working in

As we publish Brian King's book The Wreck of the Racehorse , we were invited to attend the ceremony to unveil a plaque marking 200 years since the boat sank.  We were incredibly lucky with the weather.  It was very cold - hey, it's December - but not raining or windy.  Gorgeous day. Racehorse , as many of you know, was one of the two wrecks - the other one was of Vigilant , which Racehorse was supposed to be escorting home - which prompted William Hillary to found the RNLI. The plaque was unveiled, as it says, by the Isle of Man's Lieutenant Governor, Sir John Lorimer.  Sir John represents the Lord of Mann on the island:  the Lord of Mann is better known elsewhere as King Charles III. What is particularly nice about this photograph is that the gentleman reflected so prominently on the left is Sir John.  Having done his unveiling he stopped to chat. (Am I allowed to say here that, according to the Admiralty, Racehorse was a sloop not a brig?  Yes, I think I am...)

While the rest of the UK has been smothered in snow, the Isle of Man has only really had a smattering.  The picture is of Snaefell, the Manx mountain.  Appropriately the name means 'snow mountain'.  The picture was taken from the path to North Barrule. The line running across the mountain is the track of the Snaefell Mountain Railway, while the building and masts are part of the air traffic control system.  From this angle you can't quite see the Summit Hotel.  Although we don't get much snow, we do get ice, so book deliveries have been quite exciting.