Bookends: A friend of mine
A friend of mine was throttled by Pete Postlethwaite once. It was outside a TV studio, people were smoking and…
Latham’s Law
One of the dubious techniques of political feminism is to construct false standards for the behaviour of men. The objective…
Bookends
I like books with weather and there’s plenty in this one, all bad, which is even better. Set in London…
Latham’s Law
Australia’s experiment with a female prime minister has failed. When she took the job 12 months ago, Julia Gillard needed…
Bookends: Scourge of New Labour
Like all politicians, Bob Marshall-Andrews is fond of quoting himself, and Off Message (Profile Books, £16.99) includes a generous selection…
Wild life
‘So much sorting to do,’ said my Aunt Beryl. We stood in the middle of her home in Sussex. I…
Bookends: Not just for Christmas
Sticky at Christmas, packed in serried rows around a plastic twig in an oval-ended paper-wrapped box with a picture of…
Latham’s law
With the sad passing of Rex ‘the Moose’ Mossop, it is at least comforting to know that his long lost…
Bookends: Venice improper
Books about Venice are almost as numerous as gondolas on the Grand Canal, but Robin Saikia is the first to…
Latham’s Law
The Great Depression was a golden age for sporting heroism, confirming the importance of inspiration in times of adversity. On…
The art of architecture
Leighton House, studio-home of Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830–96), is one of my favourite museums, and always a treat to visit.…
Bookends: When will there be good news?
I am in love with Jackson Brodie. Does this mean that, in a literary homoerotic twist, I am actually in…
Bookends: Lowe and behold
It is 1979. You are a 15-year-old boy starring in a hit US television show. You’ve seen the crowds of…
Latham’s law
Lindsay Tanner’s book Sideshow continues to receive mixed reviews. Lindsay Tanner’s book Sideshow continues to receive mixed reviews. Australia’s political…
Wild life
Aidan Hartley’s Wild life Laikipia I had enjoyed a boozy lunch and afternoon in the Men’s Bar of the Muthaiga.…
Bookends: Bloodbath
It may have been first published in 1973, but reading it again in Persephone Books’ elegant re-print, Adam Fergusson’s The…
Bookends
In the summer of 2003, in a bar in Malta, George Best was approached by a man holding a paper…
Latham’s law
In reading Lindsay Tanner’s new book Sideshow, the words of baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra came to mind: ‘It’s…
Bookends: The voice of the lobster
In existence for over 250 millions years, lobsters come in two distinct varieties, ‘clawed and clawless’. Human predators tend to…
Bookends: Unbalanced chorus
Imagine a 77-year-old woman hanging around, say, Leicester bus station, telling people about her life. She confides her belief that…
Latham’s law
Some funny things happen in the world of political reporting, but none more absurd than the profile of John Howard’s…
Wild life
Kenya Marriage can be hard for all of us. A friend of mine, we’ll call him Charles, works far away…
Latham’s law
When Russell Crowe urged South Sydney’s members to let him take over their club in 2006 he said they should…
Latham’s Law
The timbre in his voice was on the shrill side of excitable. Nothing thrilled this young Labor hopeful more than…
Underneath the arches
The Elephant and Castle shopping centre is more of an oddity than an eyesore. It lies like a stricken container…
