Yesterday, my wife and I (and the dog) took a wander along Rotherhithe Street and the Thames Path, upstream from Greenland Dock to Rotherhithe proper. It’s an amazing walk, full of history and replete with municipal neglect and the banal crimes of property developers. Strongly recommended.
A Happy New Year slice of self-publicity
It’s the evening of January 1 2012 and I’m sitting on my sofa after a cracking new episode of Sherlock. Right now I’ve got that familiar doom-laden hangover which, I trust, will be replaced by the usual sense of invincibility tomorrow morning when I wake with a clear head. There’s been lots of exciting stuff [...]
Please give to Merlin this Christmas
I’d like to take a moment or two to ask that, if you’re thinking about making a charitable donation this Christmas, or perhaps about adopting a new charity in 2012, that you give serious thought to Merlin. I act as a trustee for Merlin, and make no apology for promoting their work or seeking your [...]
A bloody anniversary, tonight at midnight
Tonight, at around midnight, will be the 200th anniversary of something particularly nasty which I’ve been living inside for a few years now. Either just before midnight on 7th December 1811, or just after midnight (so on 8th December), Timothy Marr, a sailor-turned-linen draper, and his young family were wiped out in an attack so [...]
The impenetrable skin of the plagiarist
The world can be divided in lots of ways; my favourite has always been “there are two types of people: those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don’t.” I have no idea why this appeals to me. A more useful sociological divide might be between those who are easily embarrassed by their mistakes and [...]
Girl Reading, by Katie Ward
I follow a lot of novelists online these days, via Twitter and RSS, and one of the novelists I started digitally stalking this year was Katie Ward. I don’t know how I discovered her, but I followed her, she followed me back, she did a few #FFs with me in them, which was nice, particularly [...]
I am having an Experience!
To the Scala last night with my son to see Fountains of Wayne. The gig was excellent, thanks for asking, and included a bizarre but hilarious Seventies Rock medley inserted into one of the songs, and a stupendous lounge version of Stacy’s Mom which allowed them to play their Mega Hit and stay Rock Star [...]
The BBC’s narrative bias
It is of course axiomatic among Tories that the BBC has a “liberal” bias, although it’s not often clear what they mean by this. Essentially, they’re saying the BBC has a mild tendency to report against the kind of policies Tories get enthusiastic about. But I don’t think this is quite right, actually. I think [...]
Can I read something short now, please?
We all of us have massive gaping holes in our reading, I am sure. Well, perhaps not all of us. Clive James almost certainly doesn’t. But the list of books I haven’t read is growing all the time, and as I get older it looms over me like some dark tower in Mordor (I am [...]
A message to users of email
Ah, the pleasant emetic of a Sunday morning rant…. Last night, some good friends who moved to the country some time ago visited us for the Brockwell Park fireworks. It was very nice to see them. Over a glass of wine and some chatter, I asked the woman of the couple – who is a [...]
Stuff I’ve linked to
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- "The point here isn’t that piracy by American consumers is somehow completely independent from output..."
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- Sesame Street: Cookie Monster And Count Cooperate (by...
- Sesame Street - Ernie gets Cookie Monster to eat a carrot (by...
- Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls (by chescaleigh) - ht...
- Aretha Franklin - Don’t Play That Song (You Lied) - Live...
- (ht @JasonArnopp) THE EVIL DEAD in 60 seconds with clay (by...
- "Hitchens went into my kitchen, took a cutting board off the counter, and threw it into my forehead,..."
- "It is the story of the deconstruction of the American dream, piece by piece, literally steel beam by..."
- Historically, the labour share tends to rise during recessions as companies hold on to workers and sacrifice profits, then falls back in a recovery. But during the 2008 recession the labour share did the opposite: it fell, and when the recovery began it kept falling.
- "I have just had Sartre’s book on antisemitism, which you published, to review. I think Sartre..."
- "8. The Unwitting Outlier. “Has anyone really cared about George Clooney since ER?"
- Photo
- Dominic West agrees with me: support the Merlin Christmas Heroes...
- inothernews: A photo of Saturn taken by the NASA probe Voyager...
- Robert Reich: The Most Important Economic Speech of His Presidency
- advocatenews: WATCH: The Speech You’ve Been Waiting For Hillary...
- iheartclassics: second that!
