The History of Human Vice   The Brexiteers have blocked from view Why we should stay in the EU Which is that a Higher Court of Peers Can clip the wings of profiteers Of human shame Who’d otherwise be free from the blame Of comforting those regimes Who use every heinous means To strip human… Know More

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the… Know More

Thoughts on TV series ‘Utopia’. I’m watching Season 2. Cult status. Critical acclaim. Brilliantly perverse. Mould breaking plot. Seasons 3 and 4 pulled by Channel 4. Why? One suspects the best conspiracy thriller in a decade has fallen foul of conspiracy itself. Weaving fiction with allegations of CIA MI6 dirty deeds involving real time events… Know More

I’ve just seen ‘The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson’ directed by Julian Temple. The Dr Feelgood guitarist is filmed during a revelatory last year of life as he is given ten months to live from pancreatic cancer; a William Blake ecstasy as all material things come into transcendent existence, from scenes round Canvey Island to monasteries… Know More

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. Lewis Carroll’s Jaberwocky in my childhood day was the precursor to The Goon Show and Monty Python. Daft and gentle. In a stroke of dark, venomous humour the poem is put into… Know More

Would you buy clothing from the High Street if you knew that the article in your hand came from a country where: millions work for less than a living wage, village water supplies are routinely poisoned, vast numbers of children are born malformed and with severe cognitive impairment, staff are beaten at work for any… Know More

The Matrix was breakthrough sci fi eye candy with the sufficiently strong philosophical message that we are all dumb sleepwalkers, mere scripts in machine programming. There are philosopher-scientists who believe this could, in fact, be our reality. Anyway, the directors of that film, The Wachowskis, have created a new tv series called Sense8. With the… Know More

New review! An intriguing exploration of what happens when a writer is disturbed by thoughts of sharing his life with another and faces a choice between the unknown consequences of intimacy against familiar well-ordered solitude. Emerging against a series of digressions and flashbacks, this central concern maintains suspense as the story draws to its conclusion.… Know More

The last refuge of biography in dementia is where musical memory is stored. You are what you have heard, danced to, made love to and sung. The vinyl, the CDs and tapes, the pirate radio stations, the downloads, the shuffles of your chosen greatest hits. Remember this. Document it. For when you are apparently lost… Know More

X + Y = A Brilliant Young Mind – a terrific film of depth and perception about a maths genius of a boy’s shut-off, asocial awkwardness as he edges towards warmth and belief in others. It’s extremely funny, tear-jerking, sensitively acted and reminiscent of say, Kes or Billy Elliot. Centred on the British team’s preparation… Know More