The other day, I was due to view a new flat in Stoke Newington and had literally traveled across the city when I received an email from the advertiser informing me that the room had just been filled. Upset but never disheartened, I decided to make the best of the day and explore a part of…
A Billion in the Bank
Every day for the last year, I have bought the exact same £100,000-prize-scratch-card. With the exception of a few small wins (my largest was £10), as yet, I haven’t struck it rich. It is now getting to the point whereby I am no longer buying the tickets with the hope of winning the jackpot but…
Back in London
I returned to London after spending my Christmas in Bristol. Walking to Westminster Station, I took this quick picture of the Abbey with my phone. Such an incredible building. Follow my blog with Bloglovin
The Quick and the Pointless
It is a curious thing that you are now just as likely to find a copy of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in a second-hand bookshop as you are to find a copy of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. It reminds me of the comedian Stewart Lee’s joke that, considering the current condition of the literary world, the…
Insert End of an Era Cliché Here
I was in White City earlier this week and took a stroll by the building previously known as BBC Television Centre. With the vacant office lights off and the complex’s main entrance barricaded shut, I was put in mind of the occasion I visited the disused ship manufacturing district in Belfast City (referred to by…
A Death in Morocco
Abraham’s son had drowned in a nearby river that morning. The boy, we would be later told, was 7 years old. The body washed to shore about a mile downstream from where he had been last seen playing with friends. A sharp undercurrent had caught him and he was unable to swim. None of the…
Looking back on Galway
In the initial months of the Irish economic collapse, I lived like a down-and-out amongst the bohemians of Galway City. My hair was long, my clothes were scruffy and I had no greater aspirations in life above funding my next meal. As if things couldn’t get any worse, I joined a writing group. While, as a collective, the group…
Traveling better with Tubiquette
Even at the best of times, riding the Tube can be a labored and infuriating experience. And it’s not even the delays, cramped carriages or bronchiole clogging tunnels that’ll drive an otherwise sane person to screaming at non-English-speaking strangers, but more a confluence of small, regularly occurring, irritations; tourists standing on the left side of…
To Infinity and Beyond
According to its Amazon.co.uk receipt – archived in my Gmail inbox – I bought the thing nearly two years ago. Since then, I’ve moved house twice and it has occupied space – unread – on at least 3 different bookshelves. Finally, however, I’ve started reading Infinite Jest. Nearly two weeks in and just under 120…
The Many Disappointments of Camden Town
I recently happened upon The Sunday Telegraph’s former travel editor and columnist, Nigel Buxton’s blog. In one particularly sharp entry, Buxton recalls the 1959 memorandum he delivered to the newspaper’s Fleet Street offices, outlining his literary manifesto. The letter begins with a quote from Alexander Kinglake’s classic, Eothen, which I would like to share it…
The Charming Irrelevance of Russell Brand
Last night, I watched uncomfortably as Russell Brand ranted at Jeremy Paxman on BBC’s Newsnight. Coming across more as a disaffected first-year-undergraduate-soc-and-pol-student than any sort of credible political commentator, Brand demonstrated not only an unsettling propensity towards demagoguery, but to be the most frustrating kind of citizen. That is, one that doesn’t vote. In fact,…
The Hard Brass Backbone of Bristol
It is perhaps quite fitting that the ugliest part of Bristol’s city centre is its high-street Shopping Quarter. I cannot recall ever being in a district so under-representative of its host city as Bristol’s shopping quarter. Combining faceless high-street retail brands and desperately ugly, mid-20th century architecture , the shopping quarter is a ghetto of charmless consumerism to…
The Best of Living Dead Movies
Exploiting the current popularity of the zombie genre and since Halloween’s just a few months away, I present the best zombie movies to watch over the holidays. Shaun of the Dead (2004) Shaun of the Dead combines an intelligent and self-conscious script with enough violence and gore to keep any zombie movie enthusiast satisfied. For…
Much Love for Milwaukee
The citizens of Wisconsin are a people after my own heart. Combining a love of beer, a fixation with cheese based food products and a cheerful sense of humor, ‘sconsonites (‘sconsonians?) are very easy to get along with. Traveling North from Chicago, I made my way to Milwaukee, home of the Miller Brewery, Harley Davidson…
The Backlash Against Malcolm Gladwell
Earlier today, The Guardian’s website asked readers to submit questions which Stephen Fry would then relay to Malcolm Gladwell when the pair meet next week. Gladwell , you see, is currently publicizing his latest book, David and Goliath, on the topic of underdogs and overcoming adversity. Following a quick scroll through the page’s comments section, it…