Category Archives: Journalism

Playing the tape of my interview with Dan Dennett, I hear myself, and think ‘what was I thinking’; then I can hear in the following silence the other party thinking the same thing and desperately trying to discover some peg … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m not a huge fan of Carl Hiaassen’s, but one of his books has a marvellous PR campaign waged against a crooked theme park. The kind of exuberant lying that both sides indulge in seems like satire, until you read … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In everyone’s professional life, there comes a moment that can never be surpassed. Is it happier not to notice? I don’t know. But for Roger Boyes, the Times‘s man in Germany, the choice is past. Nothing can ever live up … Continue reading → Continue reading →

From the Guardian‘s obituary of Ingrid Thulin, a wonderful actress for Ingmar Bergman: Thulin was born in Solleftea, a small town and winter sports centre on the Alven river in central Sweden.Let’s see what’s wrong with this. It’s Sollefteå not … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There’s a list here, via Metafilter. I had been going to mark the 1000th posting here with a descant on futility and failure, as is traditional on New Year’s Eve. This is more useful as well as more entertaining. Continue reading →

At 9.30 this evening, for a programme of astonishing perspicacity and excitement on Radio Four. It is also available on the Internet thingy for foreign listeners. Special thanks to Simon Sarmiento who pointed out that the blurb copy contains a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The weekend Financial Times has had a peculiarly evil general knowledge crossword for the last two or three years: it used to be in the weekend magazine, and migrated to the main section in the autumn. We attempt it every … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Today’s Financial Times has a report on the development of Birmingham Motor show, which is being “driven”, it says, by “a steering committee”. Continue reading →

I’m told, by an old friend who works there, and who would certainly know, that they are making serious enquiries. It makes a lot of sense, none of it very palatable. In other Black-related news, my friend, who writes a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I stole the headline from the Guardian’s leader but wouldn’t you, too? There is only one thing left unsaid about the fall of Conrad Black, and that is the monstrous, unfathomable greed that lies behind it. Here is a man … Continue reading → Continue reading →