Last weekend I played host to a particularly friendly cricket match – by which I mean that both teams had no clue what they were doing. The opposition, Rain Men, were captained by my friend and usual team-mate Simon, whose excuse was that he’d only played the game 263 times previously. The other captain was, [...]
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged beer, Bluffer's Guides, Boris Starling, Brexit, cats, conversation, cricket, cycling, Duckworth Lewis, Englishmen, etiquette, fishing, footnotes, Fuller Pilch, girlfriends, golf, Harry Eyres, Haynes Publishing, humour, James Trollope, Jonathan Goodall, Keith Hann, leadership, management, Marcus Berkmann, Mike Brearley, Nick Yapp, Rain Men, Samuel Johnson, Serbo-Croat, social media, South Africans, Susie Boniface, Test Match Special, The Oldie, Town Malling, William Hanson, wine, wisdom
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When I went to the bar as a very young man, it was often enough in the company of the Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society. My relationship with G&S had started early, specifically the argument in Three Men in a Boat over which song Harris is trying to sing (I remain confused to this [...]
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged All Souls College, Arcadia, Bletchingdon, Brexit, clowns, comedy, Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907, donkeys, drink, English National Opera, fairies, food, French, G Schirmer, Greek, Grenadier Guards, Holywell Music Room, Iolanthe, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Jerome K Jerome, Kazakhstan, ketamine, Latin, law, librettos, Mount Ararat, music, Oxford University, Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society, plebs, politics, Richard D'Oyly Carte, Savoy Theatre, sex, shepherds, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir William Schwenk Gilbert, the Conservative Party, the House of Lords, the Liberal Party, The Oldie, The West Wing, voice, women
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Wednesday, November 8, 2017
On the choice and acquisition of my one and only tattoo. – For The Oldie
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged Afghanistan, Anthony McGowan, army, Asterix, buffalos, Classics, Cleopatra, Egyptology, Elizabeth Taylor, gladiators, Greek, Latin, men, mothers, Oxford, Rome, Russell Crowe, Samoan, sewerage, South Africa, SPQR, tattoos, The Oldie, war
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. The Queen won a first prize for bantams at the King’s Lynn Fur and Feather Society’s show. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 6 1909 . In LA there is a chess set designed for the East India Company, featuring Sikh soldiers vs Afghans. Among a certain kind of people, being ‘passionate about Israel/Palestine’ [...]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged (il)literacy, Afghans, bantams, birds, Bobby Kennedy, Brett Dean, butter, chess, Communism, cricket, death, Django Reinhardt, education, England, finance, Germany, government, Iceland, Israel, King Alfred, King's Lynn, liberal arts, Los Angeles, music, Nelson Evening Mail, Palestine, politics, queens, Rain Men, sailors, Sam Craft, sea-faring, sex, Sikhs, South Benfleet, tattoos, the East India Company, Tierra del Fuego, traffic, Truth, work, WWII
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Monday, September 18, 2017
. Our Eastern allies have just spent £2,000,000 in equipping a Government steel works. — The Nelson Evening Mail, September 8 1908 . Ben Stokes is the sixth Englishman to have his name on the honours boards at Lord’s for both batting and bowling. The smell of hot food is not very common on building sites. Annalise was [...]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
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Also tagged Afrikaners, America, Anne Watson, arachnids, Australians, Ben Stokes, Benjamin Britten, Brexit, cricket, death, drink, finance, food, government, hair, Iceland, Leonard Bernstein, life, London, Lord's, manufacturing, Neighbours, Nelson Evening Mail, penises, Peter Grimes, Reading, Sebastian Faulks, South Africa, steel, the Bible, the Chinese, the EU, the Irish, the NHS, the Nile, train-travel, TV, work
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1) Old Joe 2) Young Joe 3) You Know
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
You wanna dance, you little count? You wanna dance? If you really wanna dance then I’ll dig out the banjo. Why not? I’ll play along with you. If you wanna learn how I’ll even show you the moves: I could teach you a thing or two. I will, I will – I promise! But gently [...]
Donizetti’s silliness at the ROH, reviewed. – For theartsdesk
BBC2′s Arena on one of the last remaining Renaissance men. – For theartsdesk
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged BBC, Gilbert & Sullivan, Oliver Sacks, Plato, science, Shakespeare, Sir Jonathan Miller, Sir Laurence Olivier, theartsdesk, theatre, TV
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In which we hear more about Klinghoffer, camp terrorism, vultures, fake boobs, Cape Town, Debussy, The West Wing, and the aftermath of sex with Willie Nelson. – For theartsdesk
Filed in column, Journalism
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Also tagged Alan Rickman, Cantona, Debussy, Denzel Washington, ENO, film, hairdressers, Israel, John Adams, Maeterlinck, Mallarmé, Palestine, Ricardo Darin, Ryan Reynolds, South Africa, theatre, TV, Vincent Cassel, Willie Nelson, Zach Braff
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