RELATED SITES

International Network on Personal Relationships [Now International Association for Relationship Research - IARR, pronounced "IARR, IARR, IARR", and whose informal mascot is a pirate.]

Since I founded theNetwork, I naturally retain an interest in its growing success. If you have read this (first of all, well done!) and are not a member of the Network's second generation group, IARR, then please visit http://www.iarr.org/ and bring a pirate outfit to the next conference.

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

Another favourite of mine is this excellent Journal, ranked in the top ten "for impact" of most social science categories by Social Sciences Citation Index. You get a discount on the Journal (six copies of 144 pages each per year) by joining INPR (see above) but it's well worth reading if you have any sort of interest in in relationships anyway (and if you don't and are a loner then it has good stuff in it for you too). Find news about the Journal at http://spr.sagepub.com/

John Wiley and Sons Ltd

The publisher who first, via Michael Coombs, gave me my first contract to publish a book and have recently published my five volume series on personal relationships, news of which is available at http://www.wiley.com/

Bristol Grammar School

I studied Classics at Bristol Grammar School and specialized in Latin, Greek and Ancient History. The school motto "Ex spinis uvas" ([We produce] grapes from thorns) is a play on the names of the two brothers Nicholas & Robert Thorne who founded the school in the 1500s.

Pembroke College, Oxford

Next I studied Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology at Oxford, living in Pembroke College, where I was Secretary of the Junior Common Room and also Cox of the First Eight. In those days they were about 16th on the river but have been Head of the River in the last few years (first time since the 1870s or so), achieving a Double Headship (Men's and Women's) in 2003 and winning the Men's but losing the Women's headship in 2013. Go Pemmy 2014!!.

The Guardian

I used to do The Times Crossword puzzles and Chess problems before it all went "Murdoch". Now The Guardian is a much better read.

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

When I lived in England this organization was working tirelessly to support wild life protection and the preservation of life-sites for birds. Their site is at http://www.rspb.co.uk/ but if you get the chance to spend a day at the Silverdale Bird Reserve, you'd see some interesting birds.

Volkswagen

Why drive anything else? For a picture of my GTI-VR6 see GTIVR6

Vaughan Williams

If you have never listened to the Lark Ascending or Shepherd of the Delectable Mountains or the London Symphony you can claim to have lived only an unexamined life. See other stuff at http://www.rvwsociety.com

Whitby

Whitby, site of the Synod in 664 convened to decide the date of Easter thenceforth, is an undiscovered jewel in the North of England and is where my family and family name originated ["Duck" is a Viking name and means "hunchback". It is connected to the word for ducking out of the way of something, not to the bird]. Bram Stoker wrote Dracula while staying there and hence Whitby has become (predictably enough) the place for a consumer-oriented Goth Weekend. But the sheer mystical beauty of the place can help you forget this. Incidentally the date for Easter is determined by the phases of the moon: Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after March 21st, meaning in effect that the earliest date for Easter is March 23rd (when March 22nd is a Saturday and a Full Moon) and the last date is April 23rd, when March 21st is both a Sunday and a Full Moon. The site http://www.whitby-yorkshire.co.uk/index.htm is very well constructed and detailed, with lots of local history and details of where to stay.

Visit "The Little Angel" at the top of Flowergate. It's an experience you deserve and won't forget.

Also try http://www.whitby-yorkshire.co.uk/lifeboat/lifeboats.htm for some truly inspiring stories of the courage of the Whitby Lifeboat crews