Category Archives: Journalism

Dan Dennett writes — and I wrote back that I would publish this here, since the Guardian is unlikely to correct every one of his niggles. I should say at once that the errors he complains of are largely my … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The radio programe I have been making on ethnic cleansing went out on Thursday for the first time, and is repeated tonight at 9.30pm; the profile of Dan Dennett was published yesterday, with a fantastically good photograph by Eamon McCabe. Continue reading →

I have been too busy, and then too exhausted, to keep this up properly. But here is a snippet, before I go on holiday, that should really go in the cuttings blog, except that doesn’t exit yet properly. It was … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There is an unnerving number of dead people in my contacts file. One of them is Douglas Adams, who I knew to get quotes from; attached to the phone number at his software company is a note of what he … Continue reading →

To the Guardian Unlimited party last night, which was painfully hip even by the standards of Guardian parties. For people of our impeccably fashionable instincts, thought only slows you down, so it makes sense that here you really couldn’t hear … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Dr William Oddie, lately editor of the Catholic Herald, was appointed by Conrad Black, and kept on in the job after libelling, rather expensively, my friend Stephen Bates, of the Guardian. He was only forced to retire last year, through … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I caught myself writing “It certainly seems likely” just now. Why? Is there any moment when this phrase is to be preferred to “it is likely” or “it seems likely”? Continue reading →

If anyone is reading this in the neighbourhood of Bath and Bristol, do come along to the two shows I am doing at the Bath Literary Festival tomorrow. There is a talk at 4.30pm in the Guildhall, which I think … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The last really big row I saw on the Well before I left was caused by a pompous imperialist American called Richard Bennett who also signed on his wife, [emendation: she was signed on before him] and used her account … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Stewart Steven, who died of a heart attack yesterday, rose to the summit of British journalism despite, or perhaps because of, two monumentally false and expensive stories. He was the man who found Martin Bormann in 1972; and who, in … Continue reading → Continue reading →