Assistant Blog

Lyndsey had a party at her studio last night, which was very nice. I got to catch up with people I've not seen enough of lately, which w...

Listening fairly obsessively to the new Kendrick Lamar LP at the moment. My last.fm tells me I've racked up 99 song plays in the last da...

I picked up a bunch of the new Penguin 80s last week; a jarring reminder of how emphatically time passes, given I remember so clearly buying...

I had a funny weekend, the kind where all sorts of things come apart and come together - mainly because I saw a bunch of people I've not...

- My album of the week is the new Warpaint LP, which is really their first album as far as I’m concerned, as I never really listened to thei...

- I’m so happy that The Bridge is back. I tend to avoid these long running TV shows, because I feel that they are a time drain, but The Brid...

- With Christmas finished, we finally took our tree down yesterday, and Alec helped us return it to whence it came. This year we bought our ...

Full of the enthusiasm of a New Year, I’m planning on working my way through Updike’s short stories this year. Updike has experienced a decl...

This entertaining book, by the young British novelist Ned Beauman, struck me as a v bold, energetic bit of writing, & the similes/descri...

Read an interview with Danny Baker today. That’s something I do every now and again and, when I do, I always think, “oh yes, Danny Baker is ...

A day of finishing books today; recently started two short novels which are both pockmarked by European war, and which both begin with escap...

Quite pleased to discover that I still think Betty Blue is a pretty great film. I watched it a lot as a teenager, partly because I fancied B...

1. Matthew E White – Big Inner LP The Guardian haven’t stopped praising Matthew E White since his debut record came out, and tempting thoug...

Last summer, when Dan came down from Reading for the weekend, the two of us set about doing some video work, as we often do when he visits. ...

I called in at the box of delights which is the British Museum on my way to meet some friends in London last week. I like picking a theme wh...

Daft link time. Amazon sell, amongst their usual wares, bottles of Barrettine Methylated Spirits. There are some rather wonderfu­l reviews u...

I’ve been warned before that there’s nothing very interesting in talking about one’s dreams. People who analyse them are deluded and people ...

A quick music recommendation for you. It’s a symptom of getting older that you begin becoming more and more interested in the ‘adult’ music...

Just finished reading Ali Smith’s lovely, confusing, inspiring ‘Artful’, which I’m clearly going to have to re-read if I want to boast to pe...

I’m a massive Bowie fan, so, transparently, today has been a ridiculously good day for me. If you missed it – ten years after his last reco...

When I was a kid I chanced upon 2000AD and, for a short period, I bought it every week. If you’ve not read 2000AD, you might think it’s a ne...

When Sam was over for Xmas we met up with our dear friend Eva in Brighton’s nice Marwood cafe. I am ashamed to say I hardly ever get round t...

Just finished reading Melissa Harrison’s lovely first novel, ‘Clay’, and wanted to pen a few thoughts while it’s still fresh in my mind. ‘Cl...

My parents have been flooded in for a few weeks up in Cambridge, meaning that when I spoke to my mum the other day she sounded a bit stresse...

Here we go! 10. Foxes – Foxes The indie-pop contingent in this year’s list gets the nod courtesy of being fractionally more fun than the ...

When we finally made it out of Brighton on the first day of 2013, it was much colder than we expected and the light, which had been thrillin...

This blog has been sleeping while its contents moved elsewhere to a new website. Now that website is dead and I remembered this one.

Right, so I have started, very tentatively, exploring the possibility of - and preparing for - the big shift from Blogger to Wordpress. That...

Over at Skuds' blog , he's made a couple of very good points about Nick Winterton MP, the Tory who blundered into a political crisis...