Monthly Archives: April 2009

I’ve always been fascinated by the passageways of underground London. Here are a couple of shots of a place beneath the streets in a very busy area of London. Any clues as to where it is?

This goes over familiar ground, but it’s a pretty decent TV programme about the Black Museum, offering some case histories and an overview of the place where over 400 items instrumental to the capture of murderers are on display. It was opened in 1874 to be used for police training purposes, and is now called […]

This is what I did last night, and why you should never, ever trust producers. The Plan: To attend short birthday party in the Phoenix Bar at 7pm, go on to a pub called the Yorkshire Grey to meet writer friends at 8pm. Earlier: A producer calls at 4pm and says can An Actor (well-known […]

I can see I’ve been making these waaay too easy. Right, who’s allowed to make a song and dance outside Fortnum & Mason?

Courtesy of Fubiz.net, a couple of graphs that show human development in the media world…

The Air Loom was the first human influencing machine. Developed by James Tilly Matthews, an inmate of Bedlam caught up in political intrigue during the French Revolution, the machine knitted together vaporous magnetic fluids to influence the minds of MPs. It looked like this; The surprising history of the Air Loom was outlined by Mr […]

Something has gone terribly, terribly wrong with British star hair. Poor Noel Gallagher has had a Pension Day Special hair helmet applied at the ‘Hair Today’ salon, Cardiff. In fact, both appear to be channelling Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave in the 60s swinging London comedy ‘Smashing Time’.

Since I posted ‘When Married People Get Scared’, the church-funded US commercial has been parodied all over the place, but this is the funniest…thanks Ian!

One of the most influential and brilliant writers of the 20th century has died. In his final book, ‘Miracles Of Life’, Jim Ballard spoke with the calm grace of acceptance about his illness, and remained, in that late volume, as quietly subversive and shockingly honest as he had been throughout his life. Despite producing a […]

In the next Bryant & May novel, ‘Bryant & May On The Loose’, a stag-man is seen marauding about King’s Cross. Now, deer and stags have a long history in this part of North London because Pagan temples around here were connected with Diana the huntress. While I was researching the book, my investigations in […]