Anne Stevenson, the lady in my loo.
I felt guilty this morning about the poet Anne Stevenson. Guilty for a moment and then not at all. Was it disrespectful, I wondered briefly, to keep her inspired book of poetry in the loo? I always keep a book…
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Wolfie’s grooming crisis and that barber from Venezuela.
Luis Martinez I need a haircut. It’s not just that I’m vain though that has quite a lot to do with it. No it’s more because I’ve been spoiled. Five years ago, I used to live in a small Sussex…
A poem about a special New Jersey summer day.
I wrote a poem, The Blueberry Cage, after a particularly idyllic July day when I was on holiday in New Jersey, USA, in 2011. Today the poem is published online by Every Day Poets, that hard-working publisher that uploads a…
I’m off to get my fitness tested at the gym – coffee-deprived but optimistic.
I’m in a rush today so apologies to all my readers. Today is no breakfast, no coffee and last night was no alcohol. I’m off to the gym, feeling remarkably cheerful, for my fitness assessment after the first period of…
Listen Asia! Rhino horn does NOT, repeat, NOT cure cancer.
The African rhino is now an endangered species. There is an Asian tradition, a totally misguided one, that ground rhino horn is a cure for cancer. It isn’t. Asia’s economy is booming. Rhino poaching in Africa is booming. Rhino horn…
Where is David Bowie now?
Where are we now? Indeed. Where are we? For anyone like me who’s grown up with David Bowie, it is an apt question. There were so many hopes when Ziggie first learned to play guitar and when we all thought…
Whatever happened to my get up and go?
Sometimes I just get days like this. I guess I’m not alone. I have been struggling this morning – getting up was a major challenge, breakfast was long and lingering, today’s projects, including writing the daily blog, put off for…
Dawn and David Stacey: two pictures by two friends.
At least two of the people I celebrated Twelfth Night with this year are artists and they just also happen to be married. David and Dawn Stacey are, I think, a talented pair. I have one of Dawn’s paintings on…
It is time for us all to admit that the British government is failing on the economy
Nick Clegg, George Osborne, David Cameron I’ve been worried, as have many of you I’m sure, about the way our leaders here in Europe have been handling the economy. I don’t vote Conservative and never have but, even if I…
Christmas is over so it’s time for a change of tea cosy
Twelfth Night, the last breath of the Christmas season was fun this year even if this photograph of my own Twelfth Night debris is a sobering experience when looked at in the light of day. On the day after a…