Thomas Arne (1710-1778) I was thinking about the English composer Thomas Arne this morning, you know, the man that our British Prime Minister hadn’t heard of when asked on an American chat show if he knew who wrote the patriotic…
I have three new poems published today in The Fib Review – you can read them by clicking here www.musepiepress.com and then The Fib Review left hand column of the Muse-Pie Press home page: You can also get to it by clicking…
Phew.
One of the many great things about living where I live in Lewes in the UK, is the annual Bonfire celebrations – the largest in Europe and, with its anarchic fervour, also the most fun. I don’t have to go…
Tonight is Fireworks night here in the UK. We light fireworks, set off mini explosions and make giant bonfires to celebrate a historical attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill the King, James I, They caught the…
Samuel Beckett laughing, yes, laughing. Well, I’m not sure why, because there is plenty of dark humour in his plays like Waiting For Godot, but I just never think of Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) as a laughing kind of man so…
With so much bad news coming out of New Jersey this week, I was worried when I received a message from a publisher in New Jersey today which had the word “unfortunately” in the first paragraph. Now any writer who…
President Barrack Obama and Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey yesterday I have had an inconvenient bout of ‘flu this week. No big deal compared to the terrible events brought about by Superstorm Sandy. My ‘flu has forced me to…
Have you ever wondered why the makers of that tedious piece of High Tory propaganda, Downton Abbey begins with a shot of a dog’s ass? Well, it always confused me until I noticed that the shot also contains the name…
6th May 2009 Unsurprizingly no one was taking photographs of me four years ago today. I didn’t look too good – much worse in fact than the picture above. It was the day I had a serious brain hemorrhage and…