Retired doctor, reader, gardener, thinker, smoker; general smart-arse probably. Left-wing politics, very not religious, like seriously hate it.

Love animals, lots of pets - dog, Roxy, 4 cats, Tiger-Lily no.1

Pretty competitive, I like games - darts, scrabble, AOE and Cossacks, cards, used to be pretty hot pool player.

I really like military history: The Napoleonic wars, the Romans `What have the Romans ever done for us ?...` LOL anyone who recognises the quote will know I`m a Monty Python`s fan, to misquote further `I`m not dead, I`m resting` ie dropped out in the good old hippy fashion.

Reading: endless - lots of sci-fi and any good fiction and historic fiction. Doris Lessing and Kurt Vonnegut were major early influences who grew my mind.

I admire Julius Caeser (with friends like that..), Elizabeth 1 (survived against all odds, refused to be married off and ruled well in her own right) Catherine the Great (ditto kinda) Napoleon, Wellington, Bodicaea and all wild women !

Chess - learned young and played often to early adulthood. I`d hardly played for years and years until now. iInstinctive rather than scientific player, prefer attack to defence. not very good sadly, but I do enjoy the process of the game. I find `Searching for B.F.` inspirational on lots of levels and try and make everyone watch it *yawn*

beanz