Robert Galbraith: Strike series, book 7 — ⚠️ SPOILER ALERT Let’s just say this at the outset: if you are looking for a story full of warm-hearted life-affirming fun, and giggles, move along now, because this really isn’t the book you’re looking for. It’s tough going, and not because it’s bad, or even because it’s over 900…

Why? WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY? — It doesn’t give me any pleasure to say this, given that I’m a bit of a Floyd fan, and think that Roger’s own Amused To Death is a work of despairing, anguished genius, but I really don’t like this album. …

18 September 2023 — City Varieties, Leeds — It seems that motivational and self-help media are modish once again. After all, only recently, we saw the Alan Partridge’s Stratagem doing the rounds. Well, anything Alan can do, Brian can do … better? A bit of a side note here…

Stuart Maconie, Harper North 2023 — It’s hard not to like Stuart Maconie, even if he is from Lancashire¹. Over the course of a number of entertainingly garrulous, and personable travelogues over the last few years that might make certain metropolitan columnists drop cliched references to “northern good humour”, he’s shown a (critical) love of the…

David Baddiel, TLS 2023 — At more than one point in this book David Baddiel describes himself as a “fundamentalist” atheist, but even then he undercuts that with the revelation that he is also a reluctant one. There’s an echo of Carl Sagan in this, who, when writing in his book, The Demon Haunted World¹…

Mulgrave Audio, 2023 — All too often these days 70s nostalgia peddles a gaudy parade of rainbow colours, platform boots, and Dancing Queen sparkles. But for those of us who actually lived in it, when it wasn’t a lysergically enhanced cultural heritage theme park, it all felt very different. …

Newcastle Theatre Royal 14 April 2023 — Stewart Lee broke his ankle a couple of months ago. He mentions this early on because of the stool standing behind him. It’s only there just in case he needs to take the weight off during the set otherwise the stage would only have contained the mic stand. It’s in…

A life well-lived is about the kinds of ripple you leave behind. — In Roman society there was a word, sæculum, which was used to define a period of time, or an era. I read about it a number of years ago, and although I remembered the concept, I misplaced the actual word that encapsulated its definition for a long time. Though it…

I was first alerted to Brian and Charles in the middle of last year when a trailer happened to drop into my twitter timeline to pique my interest. Sadly, though I very much wanted to go and see it at a cinema, it didn’t manage to find its way onto…