Stuart Maconie, Harper North 2023 — It’s hard not to like Stuart Maconie, even if he is from Lancashire¹. Over the course of a number of entertainingly garrulous, and personable travelogues over the last few years that might make certain metropolitan columnists drop cliched references to “northern good humour”, he’s shown a (critical) love of the…

David Baddiel, TLS 2023 — At more than one point in this book David Baddiel describes himself as a “fundamentalist” atheist, but even then he undercuts that with the revelation that he is also a reluctant one. There’s an echo of Carl Sagan in this, who, when writing in his book, The Demon Haunted World¹…

…look at all the Nat-C farties — There are rabbit holes, and then there are rabbit holes. The great and the good (and I’m being extremely generous there) of wonky-eyed, manic Conservatism have assembled, in a gathering of the clans in London to swap stories and map out their vision for a New England. very much with…

I bet Rishi Sunak didn’t get much sleep overnight. This would primarily be because he’d have been up with party workers looking over the local election results as they came in, but also because even if he had been able to doze for a few sweet minutes, there would have…

Mulgrave Audio, 2023 — All too often these days 70s nostalgia peddles a gaudy parade of rainbow colours, platform boots, and Dancing Queen sparkles. But for those of us who actually lived in it, when it wasn’t a lysergically enhanced cultural heritage theme park, it all felt very different. …

Newcastle Theatre Royal 14 April 2023 — Stewart Lee broke his ankle a couple of months ago. He mentions this early on because of the stool standing behind him. It’s only there just in case he needs to take the weight off during the set otherwise the stage would only have contained the mic stand. It’s in…

Yes, I too have a tedious hot take on the whole Lineker business — If you were to ask most football fans about Gary Lineker, the first thing they’d tell you wouldn’t be about the Golden Boot he won at the 1986 World Cup, nor would it be that he is fourth in the England international all-time scoring lists¹. The odd wag might mention…

A life well-lived is about the kinds of ripple you leave behind. — In Roman society there was a word, sæculum, which was used to define a period of time, or an era. I read about it a number of years ago, and although I remembered the concept, I misplaced the actual word that encapsulated its definition for a long time. Though it…

I was first alerted to Brian and Charles in the middle of last year when a trailer happened to drop into my twitter timeline to pique my interest. Sadly, though I very much wanted to go and see it at a cinema, it didn’t manage to find its way onto…