Monthly Archives: November 2010

Words fail me. Nice trebuchet, though.

There have been some very nice compliments going around the web lately on you lot. It seems people are rather surprised at the level of interactivity we share on this site. Apparently the normal thing to do is stick your posts up there, update it once every three months and forget about it. Instead, what […]

London is filled with them, but I never really knew what a theatrical actor went through before working on the play – I’d mainly worked with TV and film actors. Now, I suddenly realise the shocking level of tension they go through every night they’re working. A couple of nights back my director and I […]

Pool party on the Circle Line! A romantic dinner for ten complete with table linen, candlesticks and a wine waiter on the Central Line! Twenty pink rubber nurses at King’s Cross! It all happens on the London Underground when you least expect it. Even with all those CCTV cameras, on certain evenings there’s an air […]

I’d love to show you more of the inside of the Museum Of Everything in Primrose Hill, but there was no photography allowed. The third exhibition has Sir Peter Blake’s collection of fairground and circus memorabilia, including roundabouts, motorbikes and horses, Punch and Judy puppets, strange future predicting devices in glass cases, immense fairground banners […]

I spotted this in a fancy dress shop in Chalk Farm. Please explain to me, why would anyone want to go to a Christmas fancy dress party dressed as Graham Norton In An Elf Costume? Am I missing something here?

I hate seeing museums dumbed down. The shameful ruination of the Maritime Museum and the ghastly disaster that is now the Bethnal Green Museum Of Childhood have dumbed history to the point of imbecility, but there is another extreme – to me at least, the British Museum, despite its blockbuster exhibitions, remains painfully boring. Why […]

As an exercise in nervous tension, I heartily recommend everyone to write a play and put it on. When I do readings, I’m in control and if it goes wrong it’s my fault. When there are lots of other people involved, the fate of the piece passes to fresh hands, but I was relieved that […]

A frequent question with an easy answer; from real life. A reader once accused me of making up the character of Maggie Armitage in the Bryant & May books – he didn’t believe anyone could be that barmy. But she is, (if anything, more so) and hardly any part of her character is made up […]