Decline of the English barrister

Looking back on the glory days of the English barrister, once followed like today's pop stars and footballers... John Osborne in his autobiography notes of his grandfather: Like so many people at that time [the inter-war period] he took as much interest in law-court proceedings as people do nowadays in football or ... Read More...

Post-Truth set in early

There's something of a panic underway about 'Post-Truth'. But it seems truth ended up as a casualty in some of the earliest - and most glorious - battles of modern democracy. Yesterday, the Observer reviewed no fewer than three books whose titles begin 'Post-Truth'. Nick Cohen's review blames the 'crisis' on ... Read More...

Floating off

There's more to the wall-to-wall coverage than Bowie's artistic brilliance, reckons Gaw. About fifteen years ago a colleague told me this story. He and a mate were walking down a New York street when a pop star in an open-topped car crawled past. It looked like John Taylor so, being young ... Read More...

The name’s Leithen…

Bond is back (you can hardly avoid him) but Gaw sets out to find a new hero for our time, or at least for his age. Pushing on through the blizzard of Bond film PR - a storm that blows up every few years - I find myself finding it less ... Read More...

The Unsettling Gull

Gulls are getting a bad press lately, with even the Prime Minister expressing his disapproval of the seaside menaces. Here's a poem about them, and Welsh homesickness... I think we can all agree that gulls are unsettling. But I don’t think it’s just about the ‘cold, black eyes’ and their tendency ... Read More...

Christopher Lee and The Benefits of Being Undead

Gaw uncovers one of the secrets of a good obit: stick around, keep working... Christopher Lee died a knight, lauded for a film career that extended from propping up a very poorly British industry to featuring in some of the most profitable film franchises in Hollywood history. I don't want to knock ... Read More...

Adrian Carton de Wiart: Happy Odyssey

Gaw relays the exploits of one of the most remarkable soldiers this country has produced... Adrian Carton de Wiart's soldiering career extended from Boer to Second World Wars, taking in many events of large historical importance. He was usually to be found in the thick of the action, winning a VC ... Read More...

Easter with the Thomases

Gaw explores a flower-covered car wreck and a rain-sodden graveyard to consider what Easter has meant to two of our grumpiest poets... I keep returning to the two Thomases - Hardy and R.S. - even though they must be two of the most accomplished miserabilists in British poetry. Grumpy old men inhabiting ... Read More...

Churchill’s Great Contemporaries: Welsh Wizardry

On the anniversary of Churchill's death we pick out some highlights from his portraits of the era's great men. Here's how David Lloyd George's mysterious Welsh wiles confounded a very grand statesman... I’ve just finished reading Churchill’s Great Contemporaries, a collection of biographical essays. You rapidly realise how he managed to earn huge sums from ... Read More...

Last Christmas Forever

In which Gaw writes in praise of a song you're heartily sick of by now... At this stage of the proceedings to ask you to pay some attention to a Christmas song is about as palatable a proposition as asking you to polish off another box of sickly chocs. However, I ... Read More...