To Mossley, Greater Manchester, a tiny town atop a mountain at the crossroads of Lancashire, Cheshire and the West Ridings. Must we brave the M6, the M52, the M60, where a three hour drive always ends up as five? We must, for a tour of the in-laws. Last week Gaw noted ... Read More...

Another day and another depressing article about the obesity epidemic that’s engulfing the nation. Apparently millions are catching this deadly disease every day while innocently sitting on the sofa eating cake. It’s heart breaking – literally. According to this report, shops ran out of the largest sizes of school uniforms as ... Read More...

To Portsmouth, birthplace of Charles Dickens, Christopher Hitchens and runner Roger Black. Also Isembard Kingdom Brunel, Peter Sellers and Hollyoaks actor Marcus Patric. Also, me. We moved away from Southsea when I was eleven but naturally roots remain because I was a happy child there. Roaming around my formative haunts ... Read More...

More anti-catastrophist news: teenage delinquency is plummetting. Adolescents are increasingly turning their noses up at drugs, booze and fags, with consumption by young people the lowest at almost any time since we started measuring these things. Whilst this supports my view that things are really quite ok at the moment, it also helps ... Read More...

To Leamington Spa, my first visit. When I was at school ‘Leamington Spa’ was – for no real reason other than it happened to catch on in my gang – a comedy name. The words were considered intrinsically funny, as ‘fish’ and ‘shrubbery’ are in Monty Python, and so the ... Read More...

Susan’s post last Saturday, about a new form of space-maximising home, got me thinking about what we could do to improve things without re-modelling the entire place. Here are a few suggestions. First, double up on dishwashers and dispense entirely with cupboards for your crockery and pots and pans. Rotate it ... Read More...

The British class system seems to be all the rage at the moment. I like good period dramas about toffs, which is why I can't bring myself to watch Downton Abbey. I did enjoy Parade's End, primarily for the performance of Rebecca Hall, who managed to be alluring yet repulsive, ... Read More...

To ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Tricky, isn’t it? But it becomes a lot easier when you know the locals shorten it to Den Bosch, pronounced ‘boss’ (‘The Duke’s Wood’ to ‘The Wood’). It’s from this nickname that its most famous son, the painter Hieronymus, took his surname. English speakers are fortunate he didn’t ... Read More...

There are two kinds of beach holiday: nice relaxing ones in hot countries; and British ones, with children. A British beach holiday with children is a series of logistical problems, and if pleasure is to be found for adults it is in the sense of achievement afforded by overcoming them. ... Read More...

I went to a couple of conferences last week, both, as it happens, on the future. One was concerned with retail and the consumer, the other on the web, technology and design. Most speakers saw the future as consisting of a lot more of what’s new-ish today. So the internet would ... Read More...