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News At A Glance #4

Friday, April 22, 2022

Concerning sparrows in Ethiopia, more than one Alma in Wisconsin, and William Langley in Port Stanley. — For The Emigre

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged beards, berries, birds, Cameroon, death, dogs, Ethel Smyth, Ethiopia, facts, fleas, government, Guinness, intelligence, Moondog, Nelson Evening Mail, news, patriotism, publishing, rivers, Rome, Russians, satire, sex, Shantha Bandara, singing, Sri Lanka, Stanley, TE Lawrence, The Emigre, the sea, typos, William Langley, Wisconsin, women | Comments (0)

Small-town radio

Thursday, April 21, 2022

The second (Stanley) instalment of my exchange of Falklands War/1982 letters with Dominic Hilton in Argentina. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged .1982, ABBA, Adam Godley, America, Argentina, Armed Forces' Day, Battle Day, BBC World Service, Ben Fogle, BFBS, birthdays, Bob Peck, Buenos Aires, coincidences, complaints, condoms, Dire Straits, Dominic Hilton, Don Williams, Falkland Islands, Falkland Islands Defence Force, Falkland Islands Radio Service, fishing, fruit, Government House, Graham Bound, horse-racing, Ian Richardson, John Simpson, letters, Major Mike Norman, Mantovani, Marc Warren, Mike Grady, MLA Gavin Short, Patrick Watts MBE, PTSD, Richard Brautigan, Royal Marines, senior citizens, sheep, Sir Rex Hunt, South Georgia, Stanley, submarines, The Critic, The Falklands War, The Penguin News, the West Store, The West Wing, tourism | Comments (0)

Insecurities fraud

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy by Symeon Brown, Atlantic Books, £16.99 . Born when we were born, and embarking on writing ‘careers’ (LOL) just as the web ripped the financial guts out of the paper industry, my idea of a good time is to phone my best […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged 50 Cent, Atlantic Books, Black Lives Matter, books, Cardi B, Channel 4, China, Clubhouse, Covid, crime, cryptocurrency, dropshipping, Facebook, fashion, Fashion Nova, finance, influencing, Instagram, Jordan Belfort, Journalism, Kylie Jenner, LimeWire, LinkedIn, livestreaming, non-fiction, plastic surgery, pyramid schemes, rap, religion, social media, Soulja Boy, Symeon Brown, Texas, The Critic, The Wall Street Journal, TikTok, Tottenham, Turkey, Twitter, YouTube | Comments (0)

Eerie-Ness

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Review of Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood’s poem/song/story/play on where past and present meet at Orford Ness. — For Perspective magazine

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged audiobooks, fiction, Hugh Brunt, landscape, Max Porter, non-fiction, Orford Ness, Penguin, Perspective, Poetry, Radiohead, Robert Macfarlane, Scarfolk, Stanley Donwood, Stephen Dillane, Suffolk, the Falklands, war | Comments (0)

Zooming windows

Saturday, March 20, 2021

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 | 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, Germany, grandmothers, Guinness, Gyles Brandreth, Harry HIll, Hawaii, Humphrey Bogart, Italy, jellyfish, lyrics, mental health, 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 | Comments (0)

In-line, online, and where to draw the line?

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Notes on Colombo’s books and bookmen in the time of Covid-19. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged alcohol, Aleksandar Hemon, Amazon, Ashok Ferrey, B&Q, Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, books, bookshops, Buddhism, Ceylon, Ceylon Bible Society, charity, China, Chuck Palahniuk, clothing, Colombo, Colombo Fashion Week, Colombo International Book Fair, construction, Covid-19, Dan Brown, David Duchovny, democracy, Denis Johnson, Donald Trump, Dr Sudath Samaraweera, Dutch Burgher Union, education, Emma Donoghue, Emmanuel Carrere, England, Eventbrite, Facebook, Galle Literary Festival, Harrods, health, hygiene, Iran, James Hadley Chase, Jilly Cooper, Kumar Sangakkara, letters, LIDL, Lt General Shavendra Silva, Malaysia, Michael Chabon, Milo, money, Nicholas Mosley, Nixon, Northern Ireland, novels, One Galle Face, Ottawan, Panos Karnezis, rain, religion, Robert Knox, satire, schools, Shangri-La, Shehan Karunatilaka, shopping, Sinhala, snacks, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Exhibition & Conference Centre, Tamil, TASCHEN, taxes, TGI Fridays, The Big Bad Wolf, The Critic, the internet, the Sistine Chapel, Tisara Prakasakayo, TS Eliot, tsunami, VIPs, Waterstone's, weddings, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne | 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, London, nature, non-fiction, RSPB, sandwiches, Scotland, spiders, the Arctic, the BBC, the British, the Thames, Wales, Walter Rothschild | Comments (0)

Strength and honour

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

A love letter to 20 years of watching Gladiator. — For The Critic

Filed in column, Journalism | Also tagged Academy Awards, Alain de Botton, army, Classics, Cleopatra, Commodus, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, drink, Edward Gibbon, Facebook, film, Germans, Hans Zimmer, Harry Sidebottom, history, Holst, Jesus, Julius Caesar, Kent, Loeb Classical Library, love, Marcus Aurelius, Moravia, Morocco, Nick Cave, Odeon, Oxford, painting, religion, Rich Hardcastle, Ridley Scott, Rome, Royal Albert Hall, Russell Crowe, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Suffolk, Surrey, tattoos, The Critic, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, war, YouTube | Comments (0)

‘Beauty retire’ – or; Some notes on a portrait of Samuel Pepys

Monday, April 20, 2020

The odd (and possibly inconsequential) story of Pepys’s portrait, his song, and his relationship with Mrs Knepp. — For The Critic

Filed in feature, Journalism | Also tagged composition, Elizabeth Knepp, fire, friends, health, John Hayls, National Portrait Gallery, Oliver Cromwell, opera, Pelham Humfrey, portraits, Royal Navy, Samuel Pepys, sex, singing, The Athenaeum, The Critic, the Royal Society, William Davenant, women | Comments (0)

Peak fitness: a virtual expedition diary

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Climbing a mountain, lest I start climbing the walls In January, I promised a visiting Reservist mate that we’d climb Adam’s Peak. That plan was scotched when, days before he landed, I went down with dengue fever. But I’d done Adam’s Peak before (the first time, Christmas ’04, probably saved my life when the tsunami struck…), and […]

Filed in feature, Journalism | Also tagged Adam's Peak, Adidas, army, boredom, Buddhism, Christianity, cigars, coffee, Colombo, David Balfour, David Sharp, Everest, Fa-Hsien, Forrest Gump, health, Hinduism, Ibn Battuta, Islam, Marco Polo, meteorology, mosquitoes, mountaineering, Neighbours, podcasts, River Kwai, Sinhala, Spectator, Sri Lanka, stairs, Tamil, the Bible, The Mahavamsa, the Matterhorn, The West Wing, Thomas Tallis, Zumba | Comments (1)