A febrile air of hope and opportunity runs through most of United We Stand – a dramatic exploration of the 1972 building workers’ strike and subsequent jailings. Set against glam rock and rank-and-file radicalisation, the play explores how builders’ anger …
Conviction politics: Shrewsbury’s jailed strikers won’t be the last Read more »
Few childhood books made such a lasting impression on me as Ian Serraillier’s Silver Sword. Nevertheless, until my daughter reminded me of the work, I would have struggled to identify the source of the themes that so impressed me. The …
Poles apart: a war-torn-childhood classic resonates yet Read more »
Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader the day before Trades Union Congress gathered in Brighton electrified the annual gathering of shop stewards and general secretaries. Speeches on the most prosaic subjects were greeted with thunderous applause if they included a …
Few are the major cities that afford outdoor swimming at their very centre. Geneva, by virtue of its site at the head of one of Western Europe’s largest lakes, has always been an exception. There are several points at which …
Bathing on a building site is an improbable antidote to June in the city. Nonetheless, the Kings Cross Pond Club provides an enchanting, if unusual, oasis as the mercury rises. This temporary installation in the midst of the vast goods-yard redevelopment …
TES column 6 February 2015 ‘Professional’, used as a descriptive term, has undergone a transformation. Today it means ‘unequivocally good’. Governors are expected to work ‘professionally’ to encourage school improvement. Top-of-the-range tools and products are ‘professional quality’ and we aspire …
Professional foul: there is more to life than mammon Read more »
Originally published by The Guardian 9 January 2015 Hannah Weller’s campaign to “prevent the media from publishing photographs of children without their parents’ consent” makes a seductive pitch. She and her musician husband Paul were photographed with their young children, without their …
Over exposure: are new laws needed to protect celebrities’ children? Read more »
The first obvious signs that Christmas Day had arrived in Makumba, on the outskirts of Mombasa, Kenya, came when the children put up the decorations. Identical to those in a million British homes, the shiny plastic banners enjoin readers to …
TES column 28 November 2014 No band is better than its drummer, goes an old saying among rock n’ rollers. It reflects the vital underpinning that the rhythm section provides any musical ensemble, even if its members are the musicians …
Just a minute: without notes, meetings are wasted hot air Read more »
1. I grew up in a home where the King was revered. In the ’70s I couldn’t get excited about big ballads, curious concept albums and woeful film scores. The Sun recordings, however, had a raw, personal, intensity to which …
Tracks of my tears: an internal jukebox selection Read more »