A S H Smyth › Late stylishness

Skip to content

Tag Archives: London

Late stylishness

Thursday, July 7, 2022

The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings By Geoff Dyer (Audiobook read by Richard Burnip, 11h 29m, Canongate Books, £21.87) . It’s late June, Wimbledon’s upon us, and Geoff Dyer is talking about his tennis injuries. Geoff Dyer is always talking about his tennis injuries. It’s one of his endearing features. But when […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged 9/11, Achilles, age, Al Pacino, Alfred Tennyson, Americans, Andy Murray, Anthony Powell, audiobooks, Beethoven, Bjorn Borg, Bob Dylan, Burning Man, Canongate, Chuck Yeager, Coetzee, Custer, David Cameron, David Thomson, De Chirico, death, DH Lawrence, drugs, epigraphs, football, footnotes, Geoff Dyer, George Best, George Saunders, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gillian Slovo, Gillian Welch, health and safety, Henry James, humour, James Last, jazz, Jean Rhys, JMW Turner, John Berger, John Coltrane, Jorah Mormont, loo roll, Martin Scorsese, Mike Tyson, Mohicans, Nietzsche, non-fiction, Paris, Pete Sampras, Peter Ackroyd, Philip Larkin, Raymond Williams, Rebecca West, references, Richard Burnip, Roger Federer, shampoo, Tarkovsky, TC Boyle, tennis, The Doors, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, the Olympics, trains, William Basinski, Wimbledon, work, WWII, YouTube | Comments (0)

News At A Glance #14

Friday, July 1, 2022

Men vs women; reaching St Peter; couscous; and Finnish conductors. It’s all go in this week’s ‘News At A Glance’! — For The Emigre

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged 1812, cats, conducting, couscous, e-gaming, Englishness, health and safety, injuries, Koreans, men, Minnesota, Nelson Evening Mail, neuralgia, news, nostalgia, Poland, Poles, Polish, Rome, South Georgia, St Peter, The Emigre, the Finns, the Tour de France, women | Comments (0)

News At A Glance #2

Friday, April 8, 2022

On Tate McRae, Tonella McGowan, and the terror threat. — For The Emigre

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged America, Antarctica, doctors, driving, finance, food, IBM, monkeys, mountains, Nelson Evening Mail, news, Northern Ireland, nutmeg, pelicans, religion, satellites, satire, Scotland, Sevastopol, Swedes, Tate McRae, terrorism, The Penguin News, Tonella McGowan, tools, wind, wine | Comments (0)

On Commonwealth Day

Monday, March 14, 2022

… my diaries relate a (very positive) diplomatic incident from 15 years ago. — For The Emigre

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, America, Australia, Basildon, Burundi, Canada, China, diplomacy, drink, finance, Gary Busey, Guinness, Ireland, Malaysia, marijuana, Myanmar, oaths, Queen Elizabeth II, Red Bull, Russia, Rwanda, school, Soho, Somaliland, South Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, The Commonwealth of Nations, The Emigre, the Falklands, Zimbabwe | Comments (0)

Beneath the mountains

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Review of Alexandria: the Quest for the Lost City, by Edmund Richardson. — For The Spectator

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Afghanistan, Alexander (‘the Great’), Alexander Burnes, army, Bagram, Bamiyan, Bengal, Bombay, books, Buddhism, Charles Masson, China, Edmund Richardson, Harappa, India, Josiah Harlan, Kabul, Kharosthi, Macedonia, non-fiction, Pakistan, spies, the British Museum, the East India Company, the Great Game, the Hindu Kush, The Spectator, tigers, war, William Loveday | Comments (0)

The Very Old New Normal

Friday, April 23, 2021

An ancient livery company celebrates St George’s Day and a year of successful ‘virtual’ operation in the teeth of Covid-19 . A year ago today, around the swelteringest part of the Sri Lankan year, I clambered to the roof of our apartment building in Colombo, donned my lairiest tropical shirt, cracked a Lion ‘larger’, and, […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Falkland Islands Radio Service, Sri Lanka, St George, the Falknds, The Worshipful Company of Skinners | Comments (0)

‘Cheese sandwich optional’

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Review of Lev Parikian’s cheerful and entertaining Into the Tangled Bank: In which our author ventures outside to consider the British in nature. — For Geographical

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Audis, Beethoven, birds, cricket, Darwin, Elliot and Thompson Limited, Etta Lemon, Gilbert White, John Clare, Lev Parikian, music, nature, non-fiction, RSPB, sandwiches, Scotland, spiders, the Arctic, the BBC, the British, the Thames, Wales, Walter Rothschild | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, July 6, 2020

. Only six percent. of all paper produced is used for making books. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Monday, February 18 1907 . The Bombay Harmonium Company are neither from Bombay nor do they manufacture or stock harmoniums. Thor Heyerdahl was right. Only 38% of Netflix content is available outside the US. Penguins can shoot […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged America, anthropology, Ayn Rand, Bombay, books, Carlsberg, Denver, food, harmoniums, Hungary, literature, money, Nelson Evening Mail, Netflix, news, paper, Patrick Harrington, penguins, pigeons, Ringo Starr, satire, shit, tea, Thor Heyerdahl, Venezuela, Venice, yoga | Comments (0)

The One That Got Away – Kesara Ratnavibhushana

Sunday, June 28, 2020

The Sri Lankan artist and photographer talks about the greatest shot he never got… and one he did. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times

Filed in column, interview, Journalism | Also tagged Aishwarya Rai, architecture, Arthur C Clarke, Barbara Sansoni, canals, Canning Town, Chamber Music Society of Colombo, CHOGM, death, fire, Galle Literary Festival, Geoffrey Bawa, India, Keir Hardie, Kesara Ratnavibhushana, Mahela Jayawardene, photography, police, Pune, reportage, SHUNT, Sunday Times (SL), weddings | Comments (0)

The Ones That Got Away

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Introduction to a new column on photographic misfires, beginning with my own amateur misadventures. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times

Filed in column, Journalism | Also tagged Antarctica, Argentina, birds, cows, England, Ethiopia, France, Gamini Jayantha Molligoda, Gundulf, in-laws, Instagram, leopards, phones, photography, Russia, South Africa, statuary, Sunday Times (SL), technology, The Fast Show, The One That Got Away, Wilpattu | Comments (0)