My daughter is on a long train journey and sitting in the same carriage to her is a very drunken Manchester United supporter, singing at the top of his voice (I can hear him down the phoneline.) It reminded me of when I was seven years old and on a train with my mother and […]
Parental Revelations – in Public
Yesterday I was doing a talk in Tameside, celebrating Stalybridge – Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture for 2022. The talk was all about my rather famous Victorian ancestor and I was quite pleased to see that the Deputy Mayor of Tameside brought her baby along to the session. The wee one was very well behaved. […]
All Shook Up In’th Shops (part 1)
Some readers of this blog will know that I don’t really do shopping. Well, high street shopping I mean. I hate the same blandness that 95% of the stores here in the UK represent these days. I despise the way that the big chains and the corporates assume that we’re a bunch of brainless, zombified […]
The Book Has Left The Building…
It’s finally up there for people to buy. My first fiction book. You can find it on Amazon here. I allowed myself a small, self-indulgent moment when the first dribblings of tweets and publicity trails arrived. I felt good about the fact that I’m honestly not out to make money from this book. It’s always […]
Laugh? I was choked (or was I nearly strangled?)
Scene: Driving around Skipton, Yorkshire – trying to find a parking space. Radio 4 blaring out. We are discussing ‘those pics’ of Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi. Him: Well, they say of course, that Nick Clegg gave a really unprofessional answer. Regardless of the truth of those photos. He shouldn’t have attempted to answer it […]
Dragons with Heart and Ethics
Many of our friends and business/ charitable contacts know that myself and ‘that Ian’ have set up some very ground-breaking social enterprises. Stuff that has captured a hell of a lot of attention from around the world – i.e. www.oromocoffee.org http://www.lyf.org.uk/programmes/ ….We have set this kind of thing up on zero funding – just a shoestring and calling in […]