| There is barely a cloud across Britain and Ireland as I write this. There are too many statistics to cite in this newsletter but Northern Ireland was the sunniest place in the UK on Wednesday. Even Thursday, VE Day, which was due to be the least good day saw almost 14 hours of sun in parts of the province! Wonderful weather to mark 80 years since the joy of European victory for the allies in 1945, wonderful weather for the ongoing Northwest 200, and a good forecast for Balmoral this coming week! We will have much coverage all three.
I will stick to VE Day in this mail. Here I write about why it is not just sentimentality to praise the far-seeing Churchill.
This fascinating letter from Bryan Johnston (born 1938) of being a boy in Belfast during the war reminded me of my own late dad's recollections (born 1930) of the blitz. Here is a letter dad wrote about it. Dad would have been almost 15 when the war ended - I do wish I had grilled him about VE Day. Helen McGurk here interviews George Spencer, 99, a war veteran from Gracehill, Ballymena. And this is the latest Roamer on World War Two. The ex veterans' minister Danny Kinahan writes here about war service, and the MLA Peter Martin tells of his mum's memories from Bangor. Belfast, BBC Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Office should have made much more of VE Day, with big main event in NI. In the absence of such, how marvellous that local communities took over and arranged events such as this fine arch on the Shankill Road. What history. On another topic, after we put the paper to print last evening I nipped down to this sale of books from a Fermanagh second hand book seller who died last year, John Gowan. I bought political and religious debate books. The sale is on until 4pm today at Martyrs' Memorial church, east Belfast, Ravenhill Road. And here is Alf McCreary on why new American pope is a wise choice. Enjoy your reading, and this glorious afternoon (as I will be doing, reading print newspapers in the shade!), Ben | 
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