Terry Wogan was only eight years older than David Bowie, but his soul was ancient... To my surprise, I felt slightly sadder about Terry Wogan’s death than about David Bowie’s. The thing about Wogan was that he was devoid of illusion about humans. He’d seen right through us, to the core, decades ... Read More...
Life
A touching story of boy and animal - a bit like Kes, but with ants... In the long ago, I was a quiet and well-behaved child, and I rarely got into trouble. There was one occasion, however, when I caused something of a hoo-hah at my primary school. I did not ... Read More...
Steerforth's 'Photographs Found in Books' series returns with an enchanting record of a 1930s school trip ... This is another gem rescued from being thrown into a skip. It's a project book, compiled by a group of Middlesborough schoolgirls in 1935, describing their day trip to London. The book has no financial ... Read More...
The digital revolution, Ray Winstone and the Ladbrokes Life have ruined gambling. It’s time to fight back… Until fairly recently, debates about The Golden Age of Pop Music have been about whether it ended in the 60s or 70s or 80s or 90s. But as I argued here, it is absurd ... Read More...
The past few weeks and months I've been up and down and over and out. I've been used, abused and frequently confused. I've also been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king. It is for those reasons that in lieu of a proper diary ... Read More...
I’m always amazed that some people are content to live in places other than Bristol. Eejits. My dear friend Martin, for instance, has to come all the way from Cardiff (a poor imitation of Bristol with added delusions of Welsh grandeur, of all things) to get a decent night out ... Read More...
In honour of Halloween, Rita shares her own ghost and haunted house stories... First I should stipulate that I don't believe in ghosts, even though I've seen one. Nor do I believe in poltergeists or demonic possession or any of the other emanations of the paranormal world. I think psychics and spiritualists ... Read More...
My favourite Australian - the competition is not stiff - is Michael ‘Maxy’ Klinger. Michael Klinger is a softly-spoken, slender, crooked man with austerely cropped grey hair and the permanent wrinkled grin that pale-skinned Antipodeans have evolved to cope with the sun. He makes a living by carefully, repetitively striking ... Read More...
In the concluding episode of his series about Phantom Libraries and unwritten books, Jonathan Law comes at last to Borges, monkeys and Babel... In all this talk of lost and phantom libraries there is one giant figure we have yet to consider, although his presence may have been felt hovering in the wings: the great ... Read More...
We could all write screeds on why left of labour groupings have not managed to expand even as people were angry about the status quo but the truth is that none of them have ever been able to bring together the enthusiasm and direction that Corbyn has managed. Michael Rosen - ... Read More...
