Monthly Archives: November 2011

I’m lucky enough to have very supportive publishers, but the emphasis is more and more on the author selling him or herself to the public via social networking. When I started this site, it was with the intention of directing readers to books, but it very quickly became an enjoyable way to talk about all […]

By no-one’s imagination has it been a fine year for Hollywood movies, but Ron Meyer, Universal’s outspoken chief, may just have had his Gerald Ratner* moment, labelling his studio’s output as ‘crappy’ and ‘junk’. In the new Variety he describes ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ as ‘not good enough’ and ‘mediocre’, and ‘Land of the Lost’ as […]

London and New York both currently have Occupy protests, but with markedly different reactions. The tents outside St Paul’s in the heart of the financial district were met with argument about the right to protest, dithering clergymen, three ecclesiastical resignations, and a final agreement to let the protestors stay until the new year. On Wall […]

Having dinner in a field in November may not sound like an enticing prospect, but this weekend we were in a Mongolian yurt, courtesy of friends Guy and Lou, which proved warm, cosy and perfect for lamb couscous and convivial conversation. As you get older, you can choose to become more or less adventurous, and […]

This, my friends, is not a bookshop; it’s a stairway to a place of enchantment. It’s what happens when a passionate shop owner creates something far greater than any mere shop. In this case, it’s a place modelled on the legendary Paris bed-&-bookshop Shakespeare & Co – for the Sanctuary Bookshop, Lyme Regis, is a […]

I’ve just delivered the sequel to ‘Paperboy’ and hope my lovely publisher will like it enough to take it on. At the start of the book I set up the seventies period and mention a few differences between old British TV shows and new ones. This was a bit of a cheat as I haven’t […]

I don’t usually cover celebrity rubbish, but this one’s a gem. Take a look at this lot; they’re the people students should really be complaining about. I think my brother’s wedding cost about £600. It was lovely, and everyone there was full of joy. By contrast, Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One Chief Executive, managed to […]

This is a brilliant way of bringing a sense of immediacy to warfare – it’s the Second World War, tweeted as if it was happening in real time.

I can’t imagine how the Kindle will ever cope with books like these. iPad apps are already providing interactive cookbooks, but London guidebooks are collectable and designed for ease of use when walking about. Here are three new volumes about the city. London’s Hidden Secrets by Graeme Chesters has a page designated for each find […]

This post is for city dwellers only. You’re not allowed to read it if you live within 5 miles of a cow. Okay, urbanites…you know the countryside? Think hard, you must know. It’s where the dirt lives. No Apple stores. No parks. Weird phone reception. The local town has an Indian Restaurant called the Maharajah […]