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This Just In: Man Splits up with Girlfriend
This was the top story on BBC News website today. When are we going to get over this obsession with celeb royals?Maybe they should be giving more attention to this. And all hail Ed Stourton, for skewering the desperately feeble “Chief Operating Officer” on the Today programme. That this came the day after the return…
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Charles Lambert’s Virtual Book Tour: The Scent of Cinnamon
Topsyturvydom is proud to hold this leg of the virtual tour for Charles Lambert’s The Scent of Cinnamon. This is Charles’s second major publication, following his novel Little Monsters. First, a biographical note: Charles Lambert was born in Lichfield, in 1953. After going to eight different schools in the Midlands and Derbyshire, he won a…
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Something Rich and Strange
Yes, that haunting line from The Tempest. It’s one of the stories in Charles Lambert’s new collection, The Scent of Cinnamon. Topsyturvydom is proud to be one of the virtual stopping points on Charles’s virtual tour, and we will be virtually hosting him on 20th January. In the meantime, check out the tour so far…
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Transition
To Liverpool, for the Transition. My reader will recall that my views about Liverpool and its status as Capital of Culture were formed in the days when a new disaster was announced every hour on the hour, and the whole thing seemed an absolute joke. Well, time to eat my words, because, in the hands…
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Credit Crunch Cloud has Silver Lining
To a well-known supermarket (not T*sco, obviously) with ‘er indoors to purchase such Christmas baubles as we require for our frugal Winterval celebration. Amongst the seasonal tat, I discover a CD of Ella Fitzgerald for one of your English pounds, or Euros, as we now call them. A quid! I spent £2.95 on a very…
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An announcement
Over the tannoy in a supermarket yesterday:“Can a member of price integrity go to aisle 24, please? Customer waiting.” Price Integrity? Do you think there’s a Price Integrity team? Do they have team meetings where they pledge to uphold price integrity against all threats? Do they finish with a group hug and a rousing chorus…
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Reading as a chore
A colleague (thanks Anthony!) drew my attention to this rant from Susan Hill. It’s not the first time she has expressed her views on this topic, and doubtless won’t be the last as long as GCSE and A level students see the reading of books as a chore to be got through as painlessly as…
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Next stop
On the train to Stafford yesterday, the announcement for each stop went:“We will shortly be arriving at Stoke. Stoke is the next stopping station on this service today”How is this better than “The next stop is Stoke”?
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The Pennine Host
On the train to York yesterday, I was startled by an announcement: “The Pennine Host will shortly be passing through the train.” I had a vision of some grizzled warriors dressed in sheepskins, rampaging through the ranks of commuters prior to a spot of ritual boat (or train) burning. Turns out it was a bloke…
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My Motorway Reading
. ..and no, I don’t mean I tool along with War and Peace propped open on the dashboard. What strikes me as I make my journey to work, largely on motorways these days, is how vans and trucks have become mobile advertising hoardings, with a sprinkling of mission statement thrown in.Years ago, if you were…