(Written to mark International Stuttering Awareness Day – October 22 Do you stammer? If you do, you’re among one per cent of the world’s population, and Tuesday is your big day. Because October 22 is International Stuttering Awareness Day – to give its’ American title. And whether we describe ourselves as stammerers or stutterers, having… read more
New writing
The Vinyl Countdown
Daily Express 20.8.2024 The trouble with technology is that our present so quickly swallows our past. I didn’t mind so much when digital photography made our family photograph albums look like medieval relics, because we could always copy our old pictures and leave them to our descendants. But albums? That’s different. That really is personal.… read more
‘Living The Beatles Legend’ by Kenneth Womack (Daily Mail, November 17 2023)
One lunchtime in 1961 a young telephone engineer called Mal Evans took a different route back to work after eating his sandwiches at Liverpool’s Pier Head. Choosing a short cut down a back alley he heard what sounded like Elvis Presley music coming from a fruit cellar. Paying a shilling, he went down some steps… read more
Will It Be 1966 All Over Again? (Mail On Sunday, August 20, 2022
Hurrah The Lionesses Ray Connolly Some moments you remember all your life. One of mine happened fifteen minutes after England won the World Cup in 1966. Like almost everybody else in the country, Plum, my wife of three months, and I had just watched the final on TV, and were driving in my little… read more
What is it about Horses? May 4, 2023
What is it about horses? Why on Saturday will we smile fondly when we see the Household Cavalry as it accompanies King Charles in his golden carriage on his way to Westminster Abbey for his Coronation? Why, in fact, do we need horses in our national pageants? They are, of course, strong and beautiful and… read more
Manchester City 1, Inter Milan 0 May 13, 2023
Consider the newspaper photographs the day after. See the unrestrained euphoria of the fans who congregated together on Saturday night to celebrate the victory of Manchester City over Inter Milan in the European Champions League final. It was a raucous time in Manchester after the match. Inevitably, a few fans got over-excited. There are always… read more
God Only Knows Where AI will lead us next? (Daily Express, May 13, 2023)
A Beatle was singing God Only Knows on my phone the other night. No, I thought. That can’t be right. The Beatles never recorded God Only Knows. That must be the Beach Boys. But having been listening to the voice of Paul McCartney for the best part of sixty years, I know Macca when… read more
Yoko Ono at 90 Mail on Sunday, January 1, 2023
Half a century ago Yoko Ono was probably the most vilified woman in the world. Believed by many to have been responsible for the break-up of the Beatles, she had, it was thought, ruined everything. Who does she think she is, was a widespread attitude, and not only among Beatles fans. This strange, zany, Japanese,… read more
Devoted – BBC Radio 4 (23.3.21)
Devoted Writer Ray Connolly spent six months in hospital fighting Covid 19. This is the story of how he survived. Starring Philip Jackson and Alison Steadman. read more
Blue Christmas a short story (December 20, 2022)
Alan had never been a fan. Not like his mother. When she was 70, and still liked to go on foreign holidays, she’d saved up and gone on a pilgrimage ‘to Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee’, as she liked to say. He’d offered to go, too, but she wouldn’t have it. ‘You’ll only mock,’ she’d said.… read more
