Today my book The Twyning is definitively pushed out of the door to make its way in the chilly outside world. It’s tough out there for a young book. There are aggressive other books, ready to elbow it in the face. Bullies lurk in the shadows of the book pages, not to mention in the… Continue reading Is the world ready for a story of love, war and rats? I’m about to find out
Read moreIt seems slightly odd to be reading words like “iconic” and “legendary” in tributes to the man in whose bookshop I once, a long time ago, lived, worked, was eaten by bed bugs, got beaten up, searched for love and, just now and then, talked about books. Although he had known, and often fallen out… Continue reading I lived with cranky legend who changed more lives than the authors he dealt in
Read moreOnce upon a time there were lots of very rich, very greedy film producers. They spent their lives looking for films that would make them even richer than they were before. One day, not so very long ago, they all came up with the same exciting idea. They would find old fairy tales and dress… Continue reading The new fad for fairy tales shows our retreat from complex reality
Read moreIt is the moment in the year when, by age-old tradition, anyone with a public voice is asked to list their favourite books, films or CDs of the year. This habit of Christmas log-rolling gives endless innocent satisfaction to its participants, allowing them the double pleasure of showing off their own intelligence and sophistication while… Continue reading Top things to hate in 2012
Read moreNow for your delectation and amusement, a 3ft 6in dwarf will engage in comic capers, falling out of cars, climbing bookshelves, getting stuck in a lavatory, and much more. Then, for those of a political bent, a thigh-slapping routine will be enacted, involving a kidnapped princess and a Prime Minister who has to have sex… Continue reading Comedy no better than a Victorian freak show
Read moreI am not good with bills. If they are large, they nestle deep in my in-tray until the blood-red reminders become uncomfortably threatening. If they are not too painful, I pay them quickly and throw them away. The electricity bills from E.ON have tended to be in the latter category – until last Friday when the postman… Continue reading This week I have mostly been talking to E.ON about my £5914.98 electricity bill
Read moreEarlier this week, a threat which has hung over the village where I live was after more than five years was finally lifted. A government Planning Inspector upheld our local council’s decision to reject a proposal for a windpower development on a stretch of countryside between four villages in south Norfolk, and the developers have… Continue reading The mighty wind: how local people took on developers – and won
Read more… I’ve written a new song, called The Sorry News. It includes several famous apologizers (24 at the last count) as backing vocalists, and contains everything you ever wanted to know about the complex art of saying ‘Sorry’. The original version, starring Rupert Murdoch in the role later made famous by Nick Clegg, is on my CD.
Read moreThe call from Louise Mensch, one evening last August, was guarded. She had no idea who I was and, as an MP increasingly in the public eye, she was becoming used to the unwelcome attention of strangers. Indeed it had been precisely that which had caused me to contact her, by email and Twitter, the… Continue reading The sad tale of the internet troll who was my neighbour
Read moreMy latest Endpaper column for The Author magazine poses the big question. Inner authorliness: have you got it? * In the manner of the 1950s Persil ads which asked “What is a mum?â€, the poet Robert Hull raised an important issue in these pages last year. What, he asked, is an author? It is a hauntingly tricky… Continue reading Are you really, truly an author? Try this little test
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