Rob Spence

  • Man breaks up with girlfriend: a nation mourns

    Just wanted to get this in before Private Eye. Obviously worthy of the first spot on today’s BBC news broadcasts…

  • Not all about you

    Novels are not all about you, Natasha | The Guardian | Guardian UnlimitedLovely letter from Ian McEwan in reply to the review of his new book. His point is, as he says, one which you would hardly think needs to be made, but clearly it does. I’m always amused when people cite John of Gaunt’s…

  • Schools ‘avoid Holocaust lessons’

    BBC NEWS | Education | Schools ‘avoid Holocaust lessons’Who do they think they’d offend? The local Nazi children?

  • Writing for profit?

    Recent analyses of what writers earn confirm pretty much what we all knew anyway, which is that, unless you are JK, or Salman, don’t give up the day job. That is, unless you can live on four grand a year.In that financial climate, the claims of the mail-order writing schools look a bit dubious. But…

  • Like, you know

    More from Taylor Mali. Once again, he’s absolutely on the button with this demolition of vagueness in speech.Hat tip: anonymous.

  • Taylor Mali on what teachers make

    The perfect riposte to the old “those who can, do…” canard.

  • Jane Aus

    Classic FM tell me that, to mark Mothering Sunday, they are podcasting Jane Austen novels, or, as they put it “complete abridged re-telling of these romantic classics”. That’s got to be better than the shortened abridged version, hasn’t it?

  • Radio Daze

    Chez Topsyturvydom, we no longer have one of Mr Baird’s televisual apparatuses, so the wireless is our main mass medium. The DAB radio in the kitchen is habitually tuned to Radio 4, with Radio 2 providing the meal soundtrack, except on Tuesdays. At other times, we’ve recently tried theJazz. Although I can’t be doing with…

  • Queen Coleen

    I’ve read the Guardian, man and boy, for a very long time- but after reading today’s issue, I’m seriously considering a change. The front page – the front page! – of today’s issue is dominated by a photo of Coleen as Venus. The Weekend magazine’s main feature is a further portfolio of her in the…

  • We don’t ignore cheating

    This annoyed me. I do wonder how you can possibly come up with a figure of 10% of all work being plagiarised if you then say that most of it is undetected. Of course, it’s just “estimated” – but on what basis, we aren’t told. What this means is – someone just made it up.…