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, German, 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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Inside Story: a novel / How to Write By Martin Amis Jonathan Cape £20 . It is traditionally ‘not done’ to review books in terms of what they’re not. And yet: this book is not a novel. It says it is on the front cover; but it isn’t. And Martin Amis makes it clear it’s […]
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged 9/11, Amazon, autobiography, Brexit, Christopher Hitchens, Clive James, criticism, death, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Jane Howard, food, James Fenton, Jonathan Cape, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, Mystic Meg, Nabokov, nonvels, Philip Larkin, pilates, publishing, Robert Conquest, rugby, Salman Rushdie, Saul Bellow, sex, Solzhenitsyn, terrorism, the Gulag, the Holocaust, The New Yorker, The Oldie
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The Sri Lankan photographer and documentarian talks about the greatest shot she never got… and one she did. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times
Filed in column, interview, Journalism
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Also tagged anthropology, army, Belipola, cameras, Colombo Design Market, family, GIZ, Harold Peiris Gallery. Goethe-Institut, holidays, Journalism, LTTE, Malaysia, men, Monash, Munira Mutaher, Olympus, Philippines, photography, Ranil Senanayake, Roar Media, Sarah Kabir, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL), Switzerland, trees, war, work, Yemen
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The globetrotting architectural photographer talks about the greatest shot he never got… and one he did. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times
Filed in column, interview, Journalism
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Also tagged air travel, Architectural Digest, architecture, Batticaloa, Dominic Sansoni, Elle Decor, Financial Times, flamingos, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, islands, Jaffna, Kalpitiya, photography, Richard Simon, Sebastian Posingis, serendipity, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL), tennis, Thailand, the UK, tsunami, Vanity Fair
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. A banker’s license in the United Kingdom costs £30 per annum. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Friday, July 17 1908 . Sri Lanka has only 500 cases of the Coronavirus. Germany has no elite universities. There are a lot of porno videos featuring Scarlett Johansson’s face. Mexico City is a good place to be an […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged America, army, boys, Chaucer, coronavirus, Danes, education, finance, Genghis Khan, Hamlet, health, Journalism, Mexico, Muslims, Nelson Evening Mail, Olympics, pornography, potatoes, satire, Scarlett Johansson, Scooby-Doo, Simone Biles, space travel, sport, Sri Lanka, Søren Kierkegaard, the internet, the Maldives, The Spectator, the UK, writers
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The Hitler Years: Triumph 1933-1939 by Frank McDonough Head of Zeus £30 . In the early- to mid-1930s my grandmother (Irish, South African, later Australian) lived for a few years in the east of Germany, as a language assistant/housemistress in a boarding school. Her one recorded comment about Hitler’s accession to power was that he […]
Monday, September 23, 2019
. John Stow, author of the Survey of London, was rewarded by James I with a licence to beg. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Friday, August 17 1906 . In Germany, young ladies have no sex. ‘Silver Billy’ Beldham was blond, and is said to have fathered 39 children. Thom Yorke’s left eye is made […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged Alexander von Humboldt, anatomy, Britain, children, Chinese, cricket, Edward Said, eels, fairies, James I, John Stow, law, London, money, Nelson Evening Mail, Nevada, Poetry, satire, sex, ships, sport, stupidity, the internet, the Middle East, Thom Yorke, vegetables, William Beldham, women, words, writers, Xerxes
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Sunday, September 1, 2019
Chastise: The Dambusters Story 1943 By Max Hastings William Collins £25 . By 1943, after nearly four years of war ‘ameliorated [only] by a thin gruel of successes,’ Britain and her western allies had little to boast in terms of their offensive victories; the lion’s share of the burden was very clearly being shouldered by […]
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged Bomber Command, Dambusters, death, engineering, film, Guy Gibson, history, Max Hastings, non-fiction, RAF, Sir Arthur Harris, Sir Charles Portal, the Commonwealth, The Oldie, war, William Collins, WW2
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Thursday, November 15, 2018
The Spanish Inquisition, and other matters unexpectedly arising. — For Queen Mob’s Tea House
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged Angola, anthems, Bosnia, Brazil, cricket, Croatia, De Selby, death, Denmark, Ecuador, film, Finland, Fox News, France, Greece, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, housing, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Laos, libraries, money, Mongolia, Nelson Evening Mail, Nepal, New Zealand, November, peace, Portugal, Queen Mob's Tea House, rainbows, religion, roosters, satire, Senegal, sex, sexting, Spain, Spike Lee, Switzerland, Tajikistan, the Forth Bridge, the Marseillaise, the Victorians, Tonbridge School, train-travel, Trinidad and Tobago, trousers, UK, Venezuela, writing, Yorkshire
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On movable type, the Internet, and almost every damn thing in between. — For The Oldie
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged blogging, books, Gutenberg, information, Latin, Mainz, marginalia, monks, movable type, printing, Project Gutenberg, publishing, religion, scriptoria, Sellar and Yeatman, Stephan Füssel, TASCHEN, technology, the Bible, the Göttingen Library, the internet, The Oldie, Umberto Eco, UNESCO, vellum
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