Listening to Louis Theroux chatting amiably on his podcast with the comedian Jimmy Carr, I was surprised to find myself getting increasingly irritated. It had been so promising. Theroux is a bright and witty interviewer. Carr is a funny but distinctly creepy comedian: smooth, quick-witted and yet oddly unendearing. While others reveal themselves (or at… Continue reading The problem with podcasts
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I had been looking forward to hearing the publisher’s perspective on the unhappy saga of Kate Clanchy and her book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. The book had won the Orwell Prize for non-fiction in 2020 and was described by the judges as ‘moving, funny, full of love and offering sparkling… Continue reading When did this cultural cringe take hold of book publishing?
Read moreThere’s a face which appears on our screens at this time of the year, and it so unusual as to be startling. It is that of a girl – pretty, young, joyful – sitting on someone’s shoulders in a crowd, her eyes sparkling as she sings along to a song being played on a stage… Continue reading When happiness gets kneecapped
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Several days after George Monbiot wrote an op-ed piece in the Guardian about the government’s planning reform. I have been unable to shift it from my mind. The legislation about to go through parliament is, Monbiot argues, .. the worst assault on England’s ecosystems in living memory. It erases decades of environmental protections, including legislation… Continue reading Does the government really hate the countryside?
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It is an odd business, reaching a stage in life when people you know are having books written about them. One moment they are there, a part (large or small) of your life, the next they are gone and being being memorialised between the covers of a book. It first happened to me last year… Continue reading Ronnie and Neil: a couple of blithe spirits dipped in joy
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Twice over the past few days, writer friends, who are working on features for the national press, have contacted me. What’s going on in south Norfolk? they have asked. Tell me all about the Waveney Valley. ITV News was in Bungay the other day for a profile of the area. Journalists are hanging around the… Continue reading HOW ODD IT IS TO BE INTERESTING – some notes from a former political wilderness
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I wanted to ring my friend Eleanor the other day after a show. Some reaction from the audience had surprised me, and she was always good at interpreting these things in a way that was useful for future shows. It was then I remembered that there would be no Eleanor at the end of the… Continue reading Five lessons I learned from a theatrical great
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In April 2020, the Norfolk artist Jayne Ivimey took to waking every day while it was still dark, gathering up her drawing materials and a thermos, and driving to the nearby Felbrigg Wood where she would watch the dawn rise. She would stay there every day until dusk, and kept up her visits for the… Continue reading The Therapy of Trees
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‘The illusion of biography is that real people are not perishable and that they can be restored,’ writes Roger Lewis in the opening pages of his soon-to-be published biography of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor Erotic Vagrancy. ‘But people are perishable. They come to an end, go out of fashion, require exegesis… The nearer you… Continue reading Richard, Elizabeth, Roger and Jake: lives pinned upon the page
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A couple of weeks ago, Georgie Grier, a comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe, posted a plaintive message on Twitter (or whatever its Musky name is now – Cross, is it?). There had been an audience of one at her show the previous night, she reported sadly, closing with a tearful ‘It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s… Continue reading My one-woman show: what I learned in Edinburgh
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