Blogs

Follow the Money – How Much Does Britain Cost? (2023) By Paul Johnson The truth is, I like money. Before you raise pitchforks and burning torches in the air and chase me through the village, the reason I like moolah is because I had next to none growing up. Things were so tight as a teenager, I used to buy cigarettes in singles from the corner shop over the road. Life has been better to me since those days of deprivation but, the point is, most...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001zby4/janey Janey is of course Jane Godley. The assumption here is many folk will know who you are. Trump, for example. Or ‘Trump is a cunt’. Archive footage shows Janey holding that banner, protesting the moron’s moron when he visited Scotland in 2016 after being elected President. I certainly wasn’t disagreeing with her, then or now. I also thought Thatcher was a cunt. But that didn’t stop Janey and her...

The Zone of Interest was re-published posthumously after the success of the film of the same name. I wrote notes for both. But I’m not sure what I’ve done with them, which is of no interest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zone_of_Interest_(film) The film version of the book, directed by Jonathan Glazier is an account of family life. Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller) is proud of her family home. She and her five children have everything they need,...

Thank you once again for all the lovely contributions to the site. It's been a really tough Pick this week! Story of the Week goes to the latest chapter of Jane Hyphen's brilliant 'Parcel for You'. This thoughtful and super-imaginative series (which I hope one day we'll see in book form) just gets better and better. This time, the wonderful characters are planning a trip to a festival. If you haven't read the previous chapters, you really don't...

Would you kill yourself? I would. Like many people I’ve talked to that have cared for people with dementia, the retort usually follows along the lines of ‘just shoot me’. Wendy Mitchell has lived with early-onset dementia since her diagnosis in 2014. Her first book was the bestseller, Someone I Used to Know . Break out the bucket list. Do a bit of wing walking. Get real about what life you have remaining. Our brain shrinks as we get older. Our...

Dalmuir Library, Dalmuir Community Centre, Duntocher Road, Clydebank, G81 4RQ Tilly and me went on our bikes to Dalmuir Library. It’s in the old C.E. Centre. The old Dalmuir School, which features in my book Beastie . A library member had ordered a copy. Evonne, the librarian, asked me which category they should label Beastie under. I wasn’t sure. There wasn’t a category for ‘#arseholes I knew’. I suggested Scottish Noir or Tartan Noir. But that...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001sk36/dog-days-dog-days-60minute-version This reminded me of the old BBC Play for Today . Gutsy dramas like Just Another Saturday or Just a Boy’s Game . Here’s the setup. Zoso (Conor McCarron), a Glaswegian beggar in Dundee, mugs another beggar. He steals his guitar, but leaves his donations and also steals the busker’s shoes. He explains, he didn’t want him chasing him. He turns up at his old girlfriend’...

Occasionally, when I've finished my weekly instalment of Josiah and Archibald's adventures, I agonize over the jokes and whether they are funny, or not. Mostly, I tend to leave well alone and not be tempted to go back and change things, except for this week! There was one joke that I just felt didn't work properly and it was bothering me. Fortunately I woke up this morning with a better version in mind. So, this week's 'Dead Reckoning' episode...

Derren Brown is magic. He writes stuff too. Much of which I’ve read. Here he condenses 17 chapters of his international bestseller, Happy . I’ve read that too. I’m unhappy that 99.99% of the stuff I read, I instantly forget. That should worry me. But you know what Derren Brown said? Well, if you don’t, I’ll remind you (and myself). ‘None of this is real.’ Happiness does not exist, but it’s one of those stories we make up and remind ourselves...