Some of these rants appeared as ‘My Pet Peeves’ for a blog on The Argus. Everyone has pet peeves. Maybe yours is ‘people who have pet peeves’. That’s fine. You bog off and be peevish about that. These are my peeves and I’ll cry if I want to.You can also go to www.rantsreviewsreflect.co.uk for more. I also review for Pause Live Action
MasterChef Goes Little
Do you remember, dear readers, the reboot of this in 2005? I sure as heckfire do. To be honest, I don’t recall much, except that the splendid Thomasina Miers won it and the fact they’d tacked ‘Goes Large’ to the [...]
Remembering Ann Gordon-Walker
Ann Gordon-Walker, Feb 1944 – Jan 2021 My wonderful, indomitable aunt has just died of cancer. It’s Holocaust Memorial Day (Jan 27th) – I’d found a BBC clip of Patrick, her father, who the whole family called Poppa, speaking about [...]
What is the relevance of basic income to the arts?
This was part of the introduction for the Basic Income: Backbone for the Arts panel discussion I chaired in Oct 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJWlpJHkXVA&list=LL&index=1 The arts are an essential part of our lives, yet this country does not support those that work [...]
The Archers: 0, Staged: 1
Often, it’s the smallest things that introduce a moment of disquiet. As lockdown started, news came that The Archers would be reducing the number of broadcasts per week to eke out its recordings. In fact, I discovered that it was [...]
Corona Life
My 12 year old wondered why we don't have a king. My attempts at explaining royal succession to him. Astonished I knew the names of all 3 royal children... It’s been weeks since I set my alarm in [...]
Shakespeare’s Women on Dating Sites
Recently, a piece entitled 'If Literature's Complicated Men were on Tinder' was circulating. I notice it was written two years ago, but I only saw it a couple of months back. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/if-literatures-complicated-men-were-on-tinder So, whilst in lockdown, I thought I'd like [...]
