Backwatersman is a gentleman in his middle years. Born in Northamptonshire, he grew up by the sea in Lancashire and spent twenty odd years living in in London, where he still works. He now resides in rural South Leicestershire with Ms. and Miss Backwatersman.
He particularly enjoys cricket, music, poetry, art and opening windows to let in a bit of fresh air.
The Crimson Rambler 
Dear Sir,
I work for Historic Royal Palaces and we are producing a publication; a collection of short stories on the history of Kensington Palace.
One of our stories features ‘Peter the Wild Boy’ and we would like to obtain a high resolution digital file of the gravestone of Peter the Wild Boy shown on your web site.
Can you tell me who owns the copyright for this image?
With many thanks.
Annie Heron
Image and Rights Co-ordinator
Historic Royal Palaces
Tel: 020 3166 6633
Email: Annie.Heron@hrp.org.uk
Dear Annie
Please see the reply I’ve sent you via email. This is as helpful as I can be, I’m afraid.
“Backwatersman”
With reference to the Sothcott box you link with Lords and the MCC, I was “in the background” when a Derek Stuart became involved with the Bedfordshire organisation of which you speak, “google” “Sword of Wrath descendeth” for local newspaper coverage at the time as captured elsewhere for the record and a subsequent breakdown of that wished for alliance by Mr Stuart of at the time “Sword Investigations”
The box, I gleaned from the sidelines, was then and almost certainly now ( in view of the membership dwindling to one in the last year , the last member being a venerable Mrs Ruth Klein), still will be with The British Museum for safekeeping.
There have been other delicate incursions to the world of this genteel but still wealthy anachronism, and usually gentlemen scholars such as they withdraw out of respect or seek a place on the supervising board of Trustees that fund their own or other charities to do something useful after official encouragement so to do.
Should you “google” any of these terms with or without my name you will probably see they have had plenty of intrusions since and sometimes continued waggish misinformation applied to their role…such as observations made over yet another intrusion since by David Shayler the ex Mi5 agent, (now a cross dresser I read) who sought an intervention using their millions in assets for a “divine” mission of his own. It may be that to desist from muddying the waters might be the price you have to pay to try to keep the facts in view, sadly at the expense of that great humour you seem able to muster and which do of course, admire for what it is!
I have since formed “Panopticon Security”, not that that is in any way real as an organisation, but as an umbrella term to
try to compensate or add to the record where yet more people might go off on a tangent from what is really there, or maybe is hidden from, our eyes!
Congratulations on your humour, by the way, it inspired this
corrective in me, which must be a good thing for any subsequent enquirer into the consequences of founding a
moribund and eccentric boby that has significant funds and must be a target for possibly fey women or men with or without a mission who might be or become fantasists or be completely sane chancers, such as arguably(?) the MCC or here the PS.
By the way “google” “Southcott grave barge explosion bridge”. you have touched on a rich seam with your perambulations.
Hello,
It’s Dan here (aka ‘Dan’s Cricket Blog’) and just wondered if I could ask a favour? I’m Press Officer at Leicestershire CCC and noticed your excellent photo of Kibworth CC within the blog. I am doing a feature on the under 17s final from the ground last year and wondered if I might be able to use the photo you took in the Club’s official yearbook this year?
If that is okay, it’d be great, and just let me know if you’d like a credit… I’m on danielnice_2000@yahoo.co.uk
Best wishes
Dan
Dan
Please see e-mail response.
BW
Dear sir,
The City Factory is a French think tank created by the VINCI group in 2008.
Our work deals with urbanism.
We are currently giving a seminar in Barcelona, about public spaces and their future.
After the seminar, a case study about creative spaces and Saint Pancras will be available on our website (http://www.lafabriquedelacite.com/), and printed in 1000 copies.
Would you mind giving us the authorization to use your icture of John Betjeman’s statue in Saint Pancras station ?
Thank you.
Victoria
La Fabrique de la Cité
+331 47 16 80 07
http://www.lafabriquedelacite.com/
Victoria
Yes, of course – please do.
If you need any more formal kind of authorisation, please let me know.
With best wishes for your seminar and publication, which sound very interesting.
“BW”
Good morning esteemed Blogger,
It’s Simon here, from Rate My Sausage, England’s second best sausage blog.
Completely random approach, but I wonder if you’d consider writing a guest review for Rate My Sausage? The style and content could be anything you fancied. A couple of hundred words and at least one digital image are all we ask for! I’m trying to gain reviews from people and blogs with completely different agendas, and your excellent place fits the bill perfectly.
I have several guest reviews already and have started publishing them, The Wartime Housewife’s review appeared today. We’re growing in popularity quite quickly atm, so I’m pretty hopeful that your blog would gain some new followers as a result.
Would you be interested in contributing? Of course I’ll fully link in to any websites you wish.
Thank you for reading, hope you have a fab Friday!
Good of you to think of me, Simon. I must confess that I wouldn’t consider myself a connoisseur of the sausage, but I’ll certainly give it some thought, and if anything suitable occurs to me I’ll let you know. Might even prompt me to try a better class of sausage …
nice blog
I have just published a cricket novel, an ebook, and I wonder if you would like to review it? What’s new about it is that it’s about a man who doesn’t like cricket who falls in love with a woman cricketer, and she tells him to resurrect a defunct cricket team. He is coached in this by a Sikh cricketer. It is set in modern times during the recession in Northern England.
I can gift it to you , complete with synopsis and material for an author interview if you like.
please let me know
thanks
Stuart Larner
—
read my new cricket novel:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guile-and-Spin-ebook/dp/B008FBZPHE/
Thanks, Stuart. I’d certainly be interested in reading & reviewing your book (not sure whether you mean on Amazon or on the blog -or both?).
Only problem for me is that I don’t have a Kindle or any other kind of e-reader as such – so I’m not sure what the best way of getting it to me would be. Is it in any form that you could e-mail, if I gave you an address?
I’m also not in reach of a computer for much of the time – so it could take me quite a while to read it and write a review.
I wish you the best of luck with your venture – and would be happy to do what I can to publicise it. Lucky you living in Scarborough, by the way (if I’ve read that right). I’ve been on holiday there, but never managed to catch any cricket.
Hi backwatersman, yes, it’s best if you can read the novel using a Kindle application you can download for free from Amazon. If you go to:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_ipad_mkt_lnd?docId=1000425503
you can download the App onto whatever you’re going to use, like a PC or an iPad or Mac or iPhone.
Have a play around with it, and download a few free classics for practice, then write back to me with an e-mail address to which I can send you a gift certificate to download the ebook. Be sure to let me know which Amazon site you’re on- whether it’s Amazon. co.uk or Amazon.com. so the gift certitificate will work OK. I think it’ll be Amazon.co.uk. I’ll also send you a synopsis and author interview background information.
my email address is::
slarner @ btinternet . com
obviously without the spaces.
thanks very much, and I really do appreciate you helping me to bring this book out to the world.
thanks
Stuart Larner
OK, Stuart – I’ll give that a go. Just given your book a plug via Twitter, btw.
Dear Backwatersman
Would you mind granting permission to use a photograph of yours (a natural bridge formed by trees growing together) for a professional powerpoint presentation in a couple of weeks time?
If you could let me know as soon as possible that would be marvellous.
Thank-you
Annelise
Annelise
Yes, by all means. A discreet credit would be appreciated – but not if you think it might detract from your presentation.
Best wishes and I hope your presentation goes well
“BW”
Thank-you, much appreciated!
Annelise