Our climate

Following a recommendation on Susan Hill 's blog, I 've just finished reading Nigel Lawson's An Appeal to Reason: a cool look at global warming. A fascinating read, which enlightened some of my puzzlement over the last decades or so about the number of people who claim our climate is warming, when just recently we've had some really dire summers down here in the south of England,although normal mild winters. During the 80's the winters seemed to get colder, with snow most winters and more frosty days than in recent winters. I can also remember a fuss about a new ice age being foretold in the late 70s - climate interests me, as when I did A-level geography back in the year dot, meteorology was part of it, though I've forgotten much of the detail now. I'm not convinced about global warming, especially when the Romans apparently grew grapes for wine making in Britain as far north as at least the Midlands; also monasteries in medieval times had vineyards in a wide variety of places , including Wales. The climate then was probably roughly the same as it is now.