It was when the Independent lost its best columnist Christina Patterson that I knew I no longer felt at home at the paper. By ‘lost’, I mean ‘fired’. Christina had been there for ten years and at the time was writing two columns a week plus an interview or profile. For me, a freelance Independent columnist… Continue reading Falling apart again, never wanted to…
Read moreToday’s the birthday of Bob Dylan. Here’s a piece I wrote in 2005 when Dylan was nominated (unsuccessfully – again) for the Nobel Prize: It was an odd kind of funeral. The deceased had lived a full and somewhat rackety life, and most of those who had come to bid farewell were, like him, brave… Continue reading ‘Tricked once more…’. Happy birthday, Dr Dylan
Read moreIt was April 1998. I was living in a flat in London after my marriage had gone belly-up. I had been working on my novel Kill Your Darlings and was so stuck that it felt as if it was killing me. I was not, as they say, in a good place. Simon Kelner had just been… Continue reading The underdog bites the dust
Read moreAnyone looking for a happy, escapist view of recession and unemployment should skip along to the Vaudeville Theatre in London where a revival of Neil Simon’s 1971 play The Prisoner of Second Avenue has just opened. The storyline may be wafer-thin but there are one or two quite good jokes in the play, and excellent… Continue reading The recesssion turns us into new people
Read moreA small moment of shame has occurred. I have earned a mention in the Independent’s Errors and Omissions column. As the name of the column implies, no appearance in Errors and Omissions is likely to be good news, and this was no exception. I was taken to task by its author John Rentoul for opening… Continue reading An error, an omission, a confession
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