Budleigh Past and Present

Retired Budleigh Salterton GP Dr David Evans I was recently told by a Budleigh Salterton friend that by using the internet I am living in a parallel universe. Well, his comment wasn't as personal as that. He actually said something to the effect that people who use the internet are living in a parallel universe. I think he meant to say that I am detached from reality. I began to wonder about the whole concept of parallel universes. Being a devoted googler I clicked my way to a useful site at http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/parallel-universe.htm And there I learnt that if indeed parallel universes do exist either my friend or I should be dispatched to the museum. For, as I read in How Stuff Works "species that are extinct in our universe have evolved and adapted in others. In other universes, we humans may have become extinct." I certainly don't feel on the edge of extinction in spite of my brush with a life-threatening illness. In fact ...

Once again I'm straying across the Atlantic, ending up this time in sunny Florida. So the above book cover showing three English cricket-playing schoolboys seems incongruous to say the least. He lives a long way from Budleigh Salterton, but Sam Williams, a Fifth grade teacher at Madison Street Academy of Visual and Performing Arts in Ocala, Florida, pictured above, is beginning to feel that he knows our town almost as well as I know Brewster and Cape Cod. And it's all thanks to the internet. For I learnt via Google that Sam is seeking information about former Budleigh resident George Mills, a well-connected author of children's books published in the 1930s who retired here and died in 1972. King Willow which appeared in 1933 was his first literary success, and was republished in the 1950s. To coincide with Budleigh Salterton's first Literary Festival http://www.budlitfest.org.uk/ , an interesting exhibition of authors associated with the town was staged a couple of ye...