For as long as anyone can remember, Eddie Rose has promoted and fronted up his summer show in Pitlochry town hall. Accompanied by a piper, an accordionist, a dancer and a fiddle player, ‘A Scottish Night Out’ is a showcase …
Immortal refrains: in praise of the singing shortbread tin Read more »
Article, originally published in The Sunday Times on 17 September 2006 It is a quarter of a century since Lord de Saumarez last used his best tableware, but his memory of the occasion is still fresh. “We probably should not …
Heir today: centuries of Suffolk history under the hammer Read more »
Article originally published in the August/September 2013 edition of The Journalist A decade ago, Glasgow-based freelance Lucy Sweet, was one of Britain’s top-earning freelance journalists. Her tv reviews for The Sunday Express netted her £650 a week, and with regular …
From my seat behind the glazed front of ‘The In Plaice’ fish and chip restaurant, opposite Bradford Town Hall I have a good purview of the urban centre. The outlook is over Centenary Square, a relatively recently-engineered public space at …
It would be easy to imagine the autobiographies of Patti Smith and Tracey Thorn exploring common themes. The authors are among the relatively few women associated with punk, both apply a poetic sensibility to song writing and both have enjoyed …
Forty years ago, Kraftwerk were prophets who took digital music beyond known frontiers and synthesized songs that celebrated machine-age icons – Autobahn, Trans Europe Express and Tour De France, for example. Today the Düssedorfers cater for our nostalgia for a …
Had I blinked, I would have missed it. We approached the German-French border at nearly 100mph, and our speed dipped not one jot as we drove from one country to the next. The Rhine, still watched but no longer warred …
Post obsolescence: derelict checkpoints give me hope for humanity Read more »
Originally published in The Sunday Times 17 August 1997 Tim Dawson dons his wet suit, takes to a dinghy and gets a lesson in how to stay afloat. I have got a mouth full of salt water. My wet suit …
First published in The Scotsman’s Weekend Magazine, 18 April 1998. See explanatory note below It was the espresso machine that started it. Staying with a friend in New York, I fell in love with her coffee maker. This was not …
Into Milan: my frustrated quest for designer furniture Read more »
The following review is of the 2013 production. It is good to see that the play has been revived in 2015. Musical theatre thrives on improbable subject matter. Who would have thought a board game, animal sociology or a ‘magic’ …
Posh background: how an old soke became a new town Read more »