Repent, Charlatans

POKE 35899, 0

Of course, it was all different back then.

Audiovisual entertainment came in the form of three TV channels, a VHS video recorder (if you were lucky) or a Betamax (if you weren’t). Video games were the sole province of the seaside arcades or the bi-annual visits of The Mitcham…

An Office with a View

Like some kind of urban Argonath, Croydon has forever been guarded by two concrete monoliths. Taberner House to the South, and City House to the North. The latter was home to Philips Electronics, the pioneering Dutch engineering firm, where I worked for two years in the ’80s in my first…

Their Majestic Santas Request

When does the Christmas run-up officially begin? The shops generally start putting selection boxes on the shelves on Easter Monday, whereas I tend to do the bulk of my shopping at 9pm on December 24th. The usual indicators are Slade on the radio and quizzes in the papers — but…