First published in the Daily Mail 13.10.2020.
From the very beginning I was afraid of Covid 19. That was in January when I first began to read reports of deaths in China. If that ever reaches the UK I’ll do … read more
Judy: Still on her way to Oz (Evening Standard 31.12.1968)
(Renee Zellweger’s performance as Judy Garland is so good and believable that it drove me back to my cuttings book to find my Evening Standard review of Garland’s opening night at the Talk of the Town in London on December … read more
Boxing Day Walks (Weekend, Daily Mail – 30.11.19)
Will you be wrapping up in a scarf, coat and woolly hat and going on a Boxing Day walk this year? Hundreds of thousands of us will be. Maybe a million. It’s a British tradition, and, if you’re really into … read more
‘James Dean Lives’
We see his face on the sides of buses, in magazines and on billboards as he helps sell cars, jeans, beer and Pepsi Cola. While in the souvenir shops we find his image on T-shirts, posters, calendars and postcards, even … read more
How That’ll Be The Day and Stardust came to be written
‘Show me a boy who never wanted to be a rock star and I’ll show you a liar…’ was a line I wrote decades ago that was used on the poster for the film Stardust. It caught on as … read more
When hitch-hiking was the only way to travel… (Daily Mail 10.10.19)
When I was 18 the only opportunity I had of foreign travel was to stand at the side of the road with my thumb out, and that was how I first saw the Mediterranean. I’d just sat my A-levels and … read more
The Abbey Road Secret – Daily Mail, October 5, 2019
Beatles fans love anniversaries, but few have been celebrated as much as the one this week when it was fifty years since the release of the group’s last album, Abbey Road.
As expected, there is a remixed version of … read more
The story of My Way (Daily Mail 6.9.19)
For fifty years it’s never been far from our ears. It’s on the radio, it’s a karaoke favourite in bars, it’s crooned in the plural by mobs on football terraces, and it’s heard with increasing frequency at funerals for those … read more
‘He’s Nearly 40’ (Daily Mail, August 21, 2019)
Responding to research from Heidelberg University that stated that parents are happier when their children have left home, I wrote:
The happiest times in this father’s life were when his children were little. Yes, it was murderously busy sometimes, but … read more
Something About The Beatles – podcast
I’m new to podcasts but I’m told by US Beatles fans that this is good. It’s free to listen to, anyway.
