‘She is constantly visited by amateurs of birch discipline, being always furnished with brooms of green birch and of the best quality, and is always happy to see any friend that feels himself inclinable to spend
Flogging a Good Cause
Alas! Poor Jeremy
The Elm House branch of the conspiracy industry may tie-in with contemporary convictions of clandestine satanic abuse rings in the highest echelons of the British establishment, but it also connects the apparently liberal 21st century society
The Sunday Post: As Good as it Gets
The standard celebrity Q&A one sees with monotonous regularity on the inside back page of the Radio Times or in your average upmarket Sunday supplement often includes the ‘highlight of your life’ question. Beyond the usual
The Wind of Change
IT’S HERE AT LAST! YOUR NEW-LOOK, NEW-IMPROVED RACCOON ARMS!
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
THE TIMES they are a changing! A long-overdue facelift is needed for this dusty old blog and now that an exciting new editor
Continue reading →The Third World
The month of April 1970, if remembered at all, is remembered for two landmark moments in modern cultural history that made front pages around the globe – the drama of Apollo 13’s aborted moon mission and the
Sitting on Offence
Those bereft of a vested interest would probably agree war is a pretty offensive thing. Edwin Starr certainly did. We’ve been bombarded with the centenary of the First World War’s outbreak this year and the general tone
Alison Paula Ewing: A Life Backwards .
Almost three months ago, a piece of mine appeared on here titled ‘My Aim is True’; it told the story of my relationship with a kindred spirit called Alison and
Continue reading →Who do you think you are kidding, Mr COBRA?
Forty years ago, in October 1974, five people were killed in an explosion that ripped through a pub in Guildford; just over a month later, twenty-one were killed in two separate explosions that ripped through
Continue reading →The Poor shall Inherit the Girth.
Anyone of a certain age will recall that the chocolate bar Milky Way used to be advertised as ‘The sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite’, with the emphasis on can. This
Continue reading →The Right to Roam
What would you say the main differences were between your average British street today and its equivalent of 30-40-50 years ago? Well, there’s probably more traffic on the roads, that’s a fair bet; and the air’s
Littler Britain or Scottish Blood, English Heart
As you’re no doubt aware, just over two weeks from now the people who make up one-quarter of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom will vote to decide whether or not they want to end a
Sunday Bloody Sunday and the Lost Art of Boredom
‘Sunday Bloody Sunday really encapsulates the frustration of a Sunday. You wake up in the morning, you’ve got to read all the Sunday papers, the kids are running round, you’ve got to mow
Continue reading →Educating Auntie.
I have in front of me a copy of the Radio Times, dated 31 August-6 September 1974 – yes, almost exactly forty years ago. The front cover is a mock-up of a police photo-fit image featuring the
Continue reading →My Aim is True.
In March this year I was being served at my local Sainsbury’s and was reluctantly drawn into conversation by the woman behind the counter; she revealed she lived on the same street I used to live on
Continue reading →Requiem for the Male Peacock.
Watching ‘Rebels of Oz’, Howard Jacobson’s BBC4 profile of four artistic Aussies who made a sizeable contribution to the cultural renaissance of the 60s and 70s, archive film of the late art critic Robert Hughes in velvet
Continue reading →Slip Sliding Away.
Two years ago, my grandfather died just a few months after his 90th birthday. Born in 1922, he belonged to ‘the wartime generation’, doing his bit for King and Country in London during the
Continue reading →