Friday, December 10, 2021
Forever and a Day: a James Bond novel by Anthony Horowitz (Random House Audiobooks, read by Matthew Goode, 7hrs 36mins) . Around the final Daniel Craig installment, there’s been inevitable talk of who should be the next James Bond. Well, I’ll tell you who it shouldn’t be, and that’s Matthew Goode. Three years ago, Anthony […]
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged Anthony Horowitz, audiobooks, Britain, cars, CIA, Corsica, fiction, food, French, Ian Fleming, James Bond, languages, Matthew Goode, McDonald's, MI6, Norway, Radio 3, Random House, Russians, Scots, wine, women, WW2
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Review of Werner Herzog’s Das Dämmern der Welt – or (probably) The Twilight/Dawn (of the?) World. — For Perspective
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged army, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Audible, audiobooks, Emperor Akihito, Ferdinand Marcos, Google Translate, Hanser, Hiroo Onoda, Japan, kochbananen, Lubang, non-fiction, Perspective, Philippines, the Falklands, the moon, the Stasi, translation, TS Eliot, Vietnam, war, Weltanschauung, Werner Herzog, WG Sebald, WWII
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Interview with members of the George Formby Society, as they attempt to break an online ukulele-playing record. — For The Critic
Filed in feature, interview, Journalism
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Also tagged Alastair Cook, America, army, Australia, banjos, Batley, BBC, Bette Davis, bingo, Blackpool, Canada, Covid-19, cricket, Cyprus, dating, Ed Balls, Facebook, Falkland Islands Radio Service, France, Frank Skinner, friends, George Formby, Germany, grandmothers, Guinness, Gyles Brandreth, Harry HIll, Hawaii, Humphrey Bogart, Italy, jellyfish, lyrics, mental health, music, naturism, nuclear power, proletarians, Queen Elizabeth II, records, Royal Albert Hall, Russia, Simon Rose, smut, Swahili, The Critic, The Daily Telegraph, the George Formby Society, the Queen Mother, the RAF, Tottenham, ukuleles, Warrington Museum, Welsh, windows, WWII, Yorkshire, Zoom
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. The Paris Louvre is in future to be guarded by watch-dogs. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Monday, July 13 1908 . The human population has almost doubled since we landed on the Moon. Genital preferences are transphobic. The third umpire will have the final say on the snatch. It is against the rules to take a […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged Adolf Hitler, anatomy, Argentina, babies, Bertha, business, cell-phones, chewing gum, coconuts, cricket, death, dogs, drink, education, Florence, girls, Greeks, history, humans, lambs, law, Nelson Evening Mail, newspapers, Paris, philosophy, satire, singing, Stalin, the Louvre, the moon, West Sussex, wisdom, writing
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Wednesday, April 18, 2018
This weekend I will be joining a local choral society for their performance of Haydn’s The Creation – and what better way to welcome Spring now that it’s finally arrived. An avowed and much-loved masterpiece from its earliest performances – Vienna, 1798 – ‘whose appeal [I read from A Peter Brown’s DECCA sleeve-notes] was irresistible […]
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged A Peter Brown, Aled Jones, army, bassoons, Beethoven, Chapel Royal, choral societies, Christianity, cosmology, cricket, DECCA, Germans, Hampton Court, Handel, Haydn, Italians, Kent, King James, Maidstone, Milton, music, Napoleon, oratorio, Oxford University, Poetry, religion, school, sheep, singing, Spring, the Bible, the Church of England, the French, The Oldie, the Oxford Spezzati, tigers, Vienna, war, West Kensington, whales, worms
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. Electricity is now used to improve the complexion. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 4 1908 . The Chinese Christian warlord Feng Yu-xiang (1882–1948) baptised his troops en masse, using a firehose. Vincent Kompany has suffered more than 40 injuries. Time passes very slowly when you’re in a hippo’s mouth. Poetry must be entered into by a personal encounter, or […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged Baby Bunting, Cadbury, children, China, chocolate, electricity, Feng Yu-xiang, football, hair, health, hippopotami, insults, Japan, Johnny Cash, men, Milan, Nelson Evening Mail, onions, Poetry, Queen Victoria, religion, song, sport, Sri Lanka, suicide, tennis, the Irish, time, Vincent Kompany, water, writers
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Monday, December 18, 2017
. Band instruments in use by the Salvation Army are worth £86,000. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 17 1908 . A transgender man has had a baby five years after having one as a woman. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, is known as ‘Fazza’. ‘Ein Volk, ein […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged Adolf Hitler, advertising, Alastair Cook, Aristotle, babies, Boris Starling, cricket, crime, death, domestic affairs, Dubai, food, health, Hergé, homeopathy, magic, marriage, men, money, music, Nelson Evening Mail, novels, philosophy, religion, royalty, Salvation Army, science, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, shopping, spies, The Waltons, Tintin, United Arab Emirates, walking, West Malling, Western Australian Cricket Association, women, writers, writing
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Tuesday, December 12, 2017
A festive gripe about Cornelius’s lovely ‘Three Kings‘ – and the solo I have never got to sing in it. — For The Oldie
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged Alexandra Coghlan, All Saints Maidstone, baritones, barristers, Bayreuth, BBC Books, carols, cellos, Christmas, Christmas Badger Singers, English, Franz Liszt, Gerald Finley, Germans, girlfriends, Hampton Court, HN Bate, Ivor Atkins, King's College London, Knightsbridge, men, music, Oxford University, Peter Cornelius, Radio 3, silk, singing, Smarden, Southwark Cathedral, Sri Lanka, The Judd School, The Oldie, translation, University of St Andrews, YouTube
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Monday, September 25, 2017
. The province of Quebec has a wooden railway 20 miles in length. The rails are of maple. This railway is used for hauling timber. — The Nelson Evening Mail, November 1 1906 . The German word for ‘train’ is ‘Schienengefuhrtes Sonderzug mit feststehender Lokomotive’. Bathtime is a good time for kicking. Margaret Atwood’s real name is […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged Allen Ginsberg, bathing, Canaan Banana, Canada, Catherine Parr, cricket, dogs, e-mail, finance, health, Helpful Books, Henry VIII, humanity, Juliet Stevenson, Marais Erasmus, Margaret Atwood, Methodism, music, Nelson Evening Mail, nomenclature, officialdom, Poetry, politics, rabbits, religion, Scandinavia, tequila, Thomas Tallis, trains, trees, Virginia Military Institute, war, Yakult
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Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Have you read Humorous Elements in the Short Stories and Novels of the Southern Writer Eudora Welty … in German? Ja, Darling! — * a (reverse) translation of Jonathan Williams’ ‘A Subtle Mississippian Riposte (for L.Z.)’ in Louis Zukofsky, or whoever someone else thought he was: a collection of responses to the work of Louis […]
Filed in Poetry, Translation
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Also tagged America, English, Eudora Welty, Harry Gilonis, humour, Jonathan Williams, Louis Zukofsky, Mississippi, novels, short stories
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