Literature
1001 ways to popular parties
When clearing my parents house a few years ago I went through the process of sorting things either to be taken to my mother’s new house, kept or sent to a charity shop or the [more…]
Book Review
Biography
Book Review, ‘Unleashed’ by Boris Johnson
The second-ever greatest Johnson of words, Samuel, the 18th-century lexicographer, informs us, “When a man is tired of London he is tired of life”. Three centuries later, no matter what we think of life we’re [more…]
Book Review
Book Review: The Last Dance by Mark Billingham
Mark Billingham will be familiar to many Puffins as the author and creator of the DI Thorne series of novels (which Sky One based their “Thorne” series on). As a keen reader of crime fiction [more…]
19th Century
Review: 120 Days of Sodom by The Marquis De Sade
Just as an 18th century Président may stalk provincial France looking for innocents to corrupt, so bots chew their way through blogs looking for relevant wares to advertise. We must proceed with caution. On these [more…]
Arts
The Dark Side of the Moon, by John Harris
This is a book which shouldn’t work – yet it kind of does. An in-depth look at one particular album from one particular band would, on the face of it, seem too niche to have [more…]
Arts
Lee Brilleaux: rock n roll gentleman, by Zoë Howe
The time is the mid 1970s. The place is Canvey Island. The band is the dynamic “proto-punk” outfit known as Dr Feelgood. (I put inverted commas round proto-punk because, although that is what some music [more…]
Arts
Book Review: The Man Who Hated Walking, by Overend Watts
Peter Overend Watts, who may be familiar to some as the ex bassist of Mott The Hoople (a band once described as looking like ‘hod-carriers in drag’ by Roger Taylor of Queen), was a rock [more…]
20th Century
Book Review: Mani, Travels in the Southern Peloponnese by Patrick Leigh-Fermor
It is no secret that I absolutely love the writing of Patrick Leigh-Fermor, a man whose life would have been wonderfully interesting even if he had never published a word. I sketched out something of [more…]
17th Century
Book Review: The Noble Revolt by John Adamson
So, you know all about the causes of and lead up to the English Civil War? John Pym was leader of the Parliamentarian party, it was all about taxation or religious tolerance… Everyone knows that, [more…]