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Welcome to the web page of Tony and Barbara Holden, We hope you will explore it. We enjoy having the opportunity to share our passions and thoughts with those who are interested. Do read on.

Tony and Barbara Holden - welcome to our site

We hope you enjoy our monthly blog of comment which will sometimes include photos, drawings, poems and links. You can check-out our previous work at poems, art, comment and community.

We have been in Loughton since 1993 and in our own home, rather than a church one, since 1999. We are long retired. We both struggle somewhat health-wise and hope to move to a local flat. We continue as best we can with our lifetime commitments. Tony can’t walk or get out but reads, writes, draws, corresponds, enjoys visitors. Barbara, in addition to caring for us, gets to many groups at our local church. Her commitment to politics, feminism and interfaith dialogue continue. We are blessed with visits from our friends and neighbours and from our 50-year-old twins and their lovely families. It is all difficult, but we keep going and we hope and pray for peace and justice in our violent and threatened world.

Read about our history.

If you wish to use any of our work please cite us at www.tonyandbarbaraholden.com

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Tony Holden

Aug 25, 20201 min read

I am 80

I am 80 – and it feels like something. Celebrations were limited by Covid and the fact that I’m recovering from pneumonia. But family and...

22 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Aug 9, 20201 min read

Too personal

I know that the line between private and public has always been flexible. I also recognise that some people suggest our current desire to...

31 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Jul 25, 20201 min read

How it all works out

Many of us are watching a lot of TV repeats! Sometimes I can ‘mouth’ the dialogue - other times I can’t recall the ending. It’s a bit...

20 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Jul 10, 20201 min read

Using your time

Finding things to do, rather than finding time to do what we want to do, is a challenge. Obviously people differ hugely in their choices...

33 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Jun 28, 20201 min read

Guardian weekly

We’ve just started taking the ‘Guardian Weekly.’ Maybe it’s age, but I’d reached a point in viewing the world when I needed paper in my...

32 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Jun 18, 20201 min read

Counting

We’ve been 100 days in self-isolation. Last week was our 55 th wedding anniversary. Today is the date in 1999 when we moved into this...

31 views1 comment

Tony Holden

Jun 5, 20201 min read

Lost for words

I was talking with a long-term friend on Skype and stumbled for a word. Indeed, I paused and admitted I’d lost the word – it was...

26 views0 comments

Tony Holden

May 22, 20201 min read

Down but not out

I get the sense that people are very tired. No one doubts the size or complexity of the task especially if you think it is to eradicate...

13 views0 comments

Tony Holden

May 15, 20201 min read

Serious times

Son Adam’s songs are titled ‘Playtime for Everyone’ – I understand it as a take on human rights, workers’ rights and play and creativity....

27 views0 comments

Tony Holden

May 10, 20201 min read

Working towards a just, participatory, and sustainable society

At its best, what does our world and society look like? One ‘programme’ comes to mind: “working towards a just, participatory, and...

22 views0 comments

Tony Holden

May 5, 20201 min read

Keeping going

We find ourselves part of ‘history in the making’ – a part of these [suffering] times. How to get through it? I remember when I was about...

14 views0 comments

Tony Holden

May 3, 20201 min read

Thinking it through

You know the phrase “too much information.” Whatever the event there always seems to be a range of analysis, interpretation and sheer...

18 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Apr 28, 20201 min read

Leadership

As I watch TV world news on Covid-19 several things stand out. The poor and disadvantaged come off worse because our systems are not...

21 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Apr 20, 20201 min read

Watching

This pandemic is surely an extraordinary time to live through: and to watch. I’m finding my usual appetite for information severely...

21 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Apr 15, 20201 min read

New ideas

I am, as our son and daughter put it, risk-averse – which is to say, I try to spot problems before they hit me between the eyes. It is...

16 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Apr 11, 20201 min read

diary-keeping

We all have the desire to make a good story out of our lives or even a story out of our good lives. We understand that autobiography,...

12 views1 comment

Tony Holden

Mar 30, 20201 min read

Zooming

To say that I never [adequately] understood how our car worked is an understatement: I certainly never knew how to fix it. To say that I...

9 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Mar 24, 20201 min read

Together

If we ever thought individualism, austerity and small state theory were workable ways of running the UK then Covid-19 has exposed their...

12 views0 comments

Tony Holden

Mar 17, 20201 min read

This day

I was born in 1940 in WW2 but have no memory of it given we lived in North Lancashire. As you know since then there have been many wars,...

21 views1 comment

Tony Holden

Mar 7, 20201 min read

COVID-19

I chanced to be watching TV as the WHO spokesperson explained how names were given to new diseases! Partly the chosen name was to avoid...

23 views0 comments

Tony's art 2018

Tony's art 2018

Tony's art 2018

Tony and Barbara Holden - welcome to our site