Old Account of how Mark & Jutta got together again

Just – February 2025 – came across this account written 10 years ago of how Jutta and I got together again in 2013, and the journey thereto.. Braynes reunited A contribution from Mark and Jutta Brayne to commemorations of the CCPE’s 30th anniversary. It’s well known, of course, that training in psychotherapy can have a … Read more …

Petra Mueller remembers Aud

We’re very grateful to one of Audrey’s former students and summer visitors from Heilbronn, Petra Mueller, for the following memories of Mum, penned for readers in Germany and translated here with the help of Google Translate. Original article in German here – Petra has captured Mum to a T. 1985-86 I was staying at the … Read more …

The Crow Who Feared a Popgun

In honour and memory of our inspirational, hugely talented – and complex – mother Audrey, her ashes now safely stored under our Sheringham stairs awaiting Lifeboat dispersal at sea next month, here’s posting a scanned and carefully edited copy of possibly the most influential book I have ever read, or had read to me. Conceived, … Read more …

Going Out with Colour, Character and Cardboard

Death isn’t a subject I’ve written all that much about on this blog. But even if it took her a very long time (best part of a decade since her diagnosis with dementia) to get there, as these things go Mum had, and continues to have, a good one. The funeral is this Friday, May … Read more …

Audrey Diana Brayne, RIP

Audrey Diana Brayne, a six-decade-long Sheringham community stalwart, died in the early hours of Wednesday 21st April, a few days before her 94th birthday. In the dark of that night, a truly unique light was extinguished, of a forward-thinking internationalist who championed issues, movements and protests long before they were fashionable. Audrey entered the world in 1927 … Read more …

Christmas Greetings 2020 from Mark and Jutta

Dear friends, family and colleagues, I’m sure I’m breaching copyright something rotten, but for our (much-later-than-usual) 2020 Christmas/New Year letter, the Telegraph’s Matt pretty much nailed it. So not having left our home in Sheringham since March except for a couple of dashes to London to grandson Leo and his parents Chris and Lena (now … Read more …

Aspergers, Part 1

I’m not quite sure how this post will unfold, other than to know that a) like my despatches from Beijing or the Cold War’s diplomatic frontline it will probably be too long, and that b) some old BBC friends and colleagues may already be sighing, “Oh dear, there he goes again.” Prompted by Fergal Keane … Read more …

Tandem Tour Aotearoa – the view of Week One from the back

It’s time again for Jutta’s perspective from the back of Daisy2, reviewing our first week on the road, with 380km or so (our computers disagree on the exact distance) behind us so far of our planned 3000 kilometres from Cape Reinga in the north of NZ to Bluff at the bottom. (Long distance cycling does … Read more …

If we’re f**ked on the climate, what can we do?

Those who visit this blog know how concerned I am about climate change, and the psychology of human denial of the urgency of approaching catastrophe. Our 32-year-old son Alastair is now on a kind of retreat in Peru, where we as parents were ourselves recently doing much the same – and where, as picture illustrates, … Read more …