Prefab Sprout's comeback gives hope to the over-50s
Every musical career has its own narrative, and most of them include at least one comeback. To come back, you…
All I want next Christmas is new Christmas songs
Three months until spring. Four months until the start of the cricket season. And only nine months until the radio…
Albums of the year? Some years we can answer it, some years we can't
Albums of the year? What a good question. Some years we can answer it, some years we can’t. The essence…
'Here's looking at you, kid' — the best lines from the movies
Many of us, I get the feeling, don’t go and see as many films as we used to, or want…
A book that's inspired by a movie (for a change)
Books become films every day of the week; more rarely does someone feel inspired to write a book after seeing…
The best funny books for Christmas
Books do furnish a room, and quirky books for Christmas do furnish an enormous warehouse somewhere within easy reach of…
Morrissey can't even moan properly — here's a frontman who can
There is much to be said for Schadenfreude. (If it was edible, it would be a meal in a very…
#Onyourmarks! What is the formal name for the hashtag?
One day there simply won’t be any strange byways of the English language left to write quirky little books about.…
Gower vs Boycott
Ask any England cricket fan in his fifties to name his favourite batsman and chances are he will say David…
Talk Talk bears repetition
First impressions always count, and they are almost always wrong. This is particularly pertinent if you review albums for a…
Licensed to feel: The new James Bond fusses over furnishings and sprinkles talc
First, an appalling admission: I have never read any of Ian Fleming’s Bond books. Nor have I read any of…
My 50 weddings
The lessons of a perpetual guest
The Mitford Girls’ Guide to Life, by Lyndsy Spence - review
For some reason you don’t expect people to be fans of the Mitford sisters, as others are fans of Doctor…
Pop: You'd love Love and Money, too - if only you'd heard of them
How and when do you become ‘a fan’, exactly? You can usually spot pop stars who are losing touch with…
Hell is other people’s taste in music
‘I don’t really like most of the music you play,’ said the tall blonde woman with whom I share my…
Across the Pond, by Terry Eagleton - a review
The esteemed literary critic, serial academic and one-time Marxist firebrand Terry Eagleton is, at 70, still producing books at an…
The last taboo in pop: fat old men
Don’t worry, I’m not going to go on about Glastonbury. I wasn’t there, I never have been and, unless forced…
