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Unfinished business
I’m lying down on the road. All is well. I can stop now. There’s a moment of sweet surrender. All is well.
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The Chorleywood Thunderer
The majority of my letters to the Financial Times made it into print: ten were published out of perhaps fifteen between 2010 and 2015. This might be because they were well-written, relevant, incisive and witty. Or maybe the FT was just a sucker for free content.
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Good and bad in disposable TV
I have never been able to watch more than two minutes of this hyped up, whooping celebration of mediocrity and third division “celebrities”.
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Navigating Politics in International Athletics 1960-84 by Fred Holder
Fred Holder was Honorary Secretary of the International Amateur Athletic Federation from 1960-1984. In 1998 he wrote a fascinating insider’s account of this turbulent period of athletics, never before made public.
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At the birth of The Animals
“I loved Newcastle so much that I failed my exams. I probably should not have gone clubbing during re-sits with Alan Price and Eric Burdon before they got together as The Animals and released House of the Rising Sun.” Wait, what???!!!
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A hoarder? Excuse me, I’m an archivist.
I have a schedule listing the A-level and S-Level results of my entire 6th-form cohort: that has enabled me to intimidate former schoolmates with my knowledge of their shortcomings for half a century.
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Iggy’s lust for life undimmed
Once on stage he was a wild beast. The crowd, a very broad spread of ages, greeted him as the returning hero which he is: the last survivor of the three godfathers of punk, since we lost Bowie and Reed.
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What the song meant to her
Its aching regret makes it one of the most powerful songs in musical theatre.
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The case for Screaming Lord Sutch
Can any other British politician match his record of policy delivery?
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George and the glis-glis wars
“Are you or your wife squeamish?” he asked. George, normally a compassionate, politely spoken and gentle man, had been pushed to the edge, as was evident from his reply.
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John Didcock: celebrating a Watford Grammar School legend at 90
It’s quite easy to teach a good pupil. But to connect, as he did, with the more difficult ones, is something special and rare.
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A Complete Unknown – Bob Dylan
For a hero of the peace and love generation, he sure harboured a lot of hate.
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Chronicles of my Holiday Wanderings (1891-1901) by Harry Bond
From September 1891 until April 1901 Harry kept a meticulous record of his holidays: some by train, some by boat and some by bicycle. It is a fascinating record of a more leisurely age of tourism.
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whatthedickens.com – a play by Philip Blackshaw
Former teacher Philip Blackshaw wrote and directed this excellent school play which serves as an introduction to the work of Charles Dickens.
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The settling train
But his son, filled with ambition in his teenage years, felt that, pleasant though his father’s life no doubt was, there was surely more to life than this?
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Why you haven’t heard of Reg
How can anyone be so talented, and produce such marvellous music, and still be so little known?
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Ramblings 