Monthly Archives: May 2012

When I delivered ‘Paperboy’ to Simon Taylor, my editor, he took it on the chin very bravely – I had just jumped genres yet again to turn out something entirely unexpected – a biography about a would-be writer growing up in a house without books. Much to my surprise – and everyone else’s – the […]

It had to happen. The Hayward Gallery, itself no stranger to the world of fatuous modernity, is about to ask punters to shell out eight quid a ticket for ‘invisible’ art from Yoko Ono, Yves Klein and Andy Warhol. Art about the Unseen 1957 – 2012 opens on June 12 and includes an empty plinth, […]

This from my pal Rick Drew in Canada, reminds me that my social obligations now include wading through far too many social networks and answering emails from my shoes, my hair product and people who want to send me their 7,000 page novel about vampires. I also belong to something that really is called ‘Life’ […]

I’m often asked which London websites would I most recommend. So, in no particular order, here’s where I think you can best go without going anywhere. There are plenty more sites I’d like to feature, so there will probably be a follow-up post to this at some point. 1. Don’t Panic is a clever little […]

Don’t mess with teenaged girls, I say. It’s been a salutary experience. Who knew there were quite so many fans of the actress Kristen Stewart, or that they would be ready to scream ‘Hater!’ without having seen ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’, the film under discussion? Who knew I’d get more posts for one lukewarm […]

On Monday 21st at 4:00pm on Radio 4 you can hear me talking about locked room mysteries on ‘Miles Jupp in a Locked Room’. The show will also available to listen to again for seven days. We recorded the show in the basement of St Bride’s Church, where the next Bryant & May book is […]

Despite the deification of dead diva Donna in the press this week, I have to admit she did provide the soundtrack to the seventies, along with Earth, Wind and Fire and Tavares, and she was also in ‘Thank God It’s Friday’, the disco cheesefest that featured Jeff Goldblum as a smarmy lothario and a bloke […]

I’m thrilled that ‘The Memory of Blood’ has made the 2012 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year Longlist – it’s a very strong list and I’m amazed to say that I’ve read nearly every book on it. My money’s on ‘The End of the Wasp Season’ a superb mystery by Denise Mina. ‘The […]

Over the past few years we’ve seen a massive rise in site-specific work from theatre companies who have used old warehouses, parks, abandoned buildings and railway stations in which to stage their work. Some, like Punchdrunk’s installations in London Bridge’s railway tunnels, have been superb. One of the best was the National’s rebuilding of the […]

Exhibit A, John Lydon’s punky PiL track recorded by…Fenella Fielding. Thanks to Porl Cooper who found it, and is clearly on a mission to kill off my readership.