AN UNLIKELY CELEBRITY

One day last week, I was visiting an old friend who told me that he and his wife were due to have a week or so in Dorset. They have been before and they like it. This time they will be staying in the village of Duntishe, far away from the madding crowd.

Now, as you may have spotted, I was born in Dorset and my friend`s mention of Duntishe gave rise to a passing chat about some of the quirky place names for which Dorset is famous. Those shown on the signpost above are good examples, but so too are Plush, Toller Porcorum, Melbury Bubb, Ryme Intrinseca, Hamoon and Whitchurch Canonicorum...to name but a few.

I`ve often thought that Dorset is one of those counties that people pass through on their way to somewhere else and, in doing so, they miss the countless delights the county has to offer. Most of all, perhaps, it offers absolute peace and quiet in its rural hinterland where those magically named hamlets and villages provide the perfect escape from the ramrod, helter-skelter, devil-take-the-hindmost, ultra competitive `real` world.

It was a bit of a surprise also last week to hear reports that the investigations into the death of Bulgarian dissident playwright and novelist Georgi Markov had been reopened by Scotland Yard and the Bulgarian authorities. Almost 30 years ago, you may recall, Markov was stabbed in the leg by someone carrying an umbrella, the tip of which contained the deadly poison ricin. A few days later, Markov was dead.

Suspicions and conspiracy theories have abounded for most of those 30 years as to the identity of the perpetrator, so why the intense activity now to try and put the case to bed? Must be something to do with the fact that the Staute of Limitations under Bulgarian law is....30 years; and the 30 years of the Markov case are up on 11th September this year.

Markov

And what has all this to do with the rural tranquility of deepest Dorset? Well, if you are ever that way and you stray into the small churchyard of the church of St. Candida and St. Cross at Whitchurch Canonicorum, you might come across Markov`s grave which must surely make him a most unlikely celebrity in that idyllic location. At least, for him, he could not be resting in a more peaceful place, in sharp contrast to his, as yet, unresolved demise.

For more on the Markov case, please see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2158765/Poison-tip-umbrella-assassination-of-Georgi-Markov-reinvestigated.html

For more on Whitchurch Canonicorum, please see http://www.thedorsetpage.com/locations/place/W210.htm