If last year was lively on Eponymous (aka timdracup.com), 2025 has been positively manic.
In 2024, I published 26 posts and thought that was good going. But this is my 41st post of 2025.
That includes 15 book reviews, 12 musical posts in my Ouroboros series, five posts devoted to our progress along various English walking trails, three other holiday reports, two mega family history posts, my annual bereavement post and a couple more that I’ve filed under ‘randomness’.
I’m pleased that, despite all my other projects, I’ve managed slightly to increase the count of books I’ve read and reviewed this year, up from 13 in 2024.
I’m awarding this year’s booby prize jointly to three works:
- ‘The Present and the Past‘ (1953) by Ivy Compton-Burnett, my failed final effort to come to terms with her as an author;
- ‘The Chateau‘ (1961) by William Maxwell which, though it tries to be experimental, is ultimately boring; and
- ‘It Can’t Happen Here‘ (1935) by Sinclair Lewis, a weak novel rendered topical by recent political developments in the United States.
My favourite novel of 2025 was ‘The Old Boys‘ (1964) by William Trevor, and not just because I’m now an old boy myself! It is a beautifully written tragicomedy.
I should also like to give an honourable mention to ‘Miss Mole‘ (1930) by EH Young.
The most popular review amongst readers has been John Meade Falkner’s ‘The Nebuly Coat’ (1903).
I have enjoyed writing the Ouroboros sequence of posts, about twelve musical compositions that are personally significant, though producing so many so quickly was very demanding.
It was wise to choose each piece of music ‘on the hoof’ rather than planning the entire sequence at the outset. It meant that I could respond to particular enthusiasms as they arose, feeling that my choices were unconstrained.
I am following with interest which of these posts attracts the most readers. At the moment, Ouroboros 1: ‘Ya Jean‘ by Madilu System still leads, but Ouroboros 9: ‘Different Drum‘ by the Stone Poneys is catching up fast, while Ouroboros 3: ‘Sweet Fanta Diallo‘ by Alpha Blondy is in third place.
The highlight of my walking year has been completing the South West Coast Path with Tracy. We walked from Charmouth to Osmington Mills in March/April and from Osmington Mills to Poole Harbour in September.
This has been an extended project, begun shortly after my wife Kate died in 2017, and I have overcome much in the process, including the death of both parents, serial Covid lockdowns and a debilitating ‘nervous breakdown’.
I have never felt more alive than when walking the Coast Path, immersed in some of England’s most strikingly beautiful scenery. It has been a wonderful experience.
I have also reported on our progress along the South Downs Way, from Cocking to Washington in January and from Washington to Plumpton in June, as well as Henley to Maidenhead on the Thames Path.
These two routes are unlikely to sustain us during 2026, so it may soon be time to begin another walking challenge.
All three of our ‘organised’ holidays this year have also been dedicated to walking:
- Four nights in the Southern Lake District with HF Holidays in February;
- A week in the Scenic Swiss Alps around Adelboden, again with HF Holidays, in June/July; and
- A week in Gran Canaria with Saga in October.
We have been incredibly fortunate in both the weather and our walking companions this year. We hope to continue that good fortune in 2026, for we already have two further walking holidays planned.
Having published a family history magnum opus in September 2024, about George Dracup (1824-1896) and the families of his four children who remained in England, I intended to write a companion post, about the families of four more children who emigrated to the United States.
This proved to be a colossal undertaking. The research required was daunting and, once I had completed that, the sheer weight of fact was very difficult to condense into a coherent narrative.
I eventually decided to split the post into two parts.
The first part, published in November, deals with the families of two daughters and of a son with a predominantly female line.
The second part, published in December, is about Henry Dracup (1853-1940) his wife Ruth (1849-1940), their five children (four sons, one daughter) their spouses and families.
We follow their efforts to establish themselves in a new country and then to diversify away from employment in the mills.
Compared with their peers in England, there is a much higher incidence of divorce, remarriage and bigamy; and a far greater propensity to get killed or injured in motoring accidents. It typically took a generation or two before emigration brought about a higher standard of living.
My post to mark #Kateday25, the eighth anniversary of Kate’s final birthday, on 4 July 2017, was about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) are beginning to impact on bereavement support.
In the realm of randomness, I have also had a go at rewriting The First Nöel and I am keeping an occasional scrapbook called Trumpery and Knavery wherein I:
‘…collect and reflect on some of the more egregious abuses of this appalling United States Government.’
While our present cadre of UK politicians is not much to write home about – and particularly disappointing coming, as they do, after a sequence of buffoons – I am thankful, daily, for small mercies!
Happy New Year
TD
December 2025
timdracup.com 