Category Archives: Children
What made America great? On the trail of Laura Ingalls Wilder
It was the 2008 crash that somehow inspired me to finally read the Little House on the Prairie books. I was clearly craving comfort, safety, a kind of nostalgia for a vaguely remembered 70s girlhood in which I half watched … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Film, History, Politics, Radio, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged almanzo wilder, ayn rand, BBC America, BBC Sunday Feature, dean butler, laura ingalls wilder, mansfield missouri, Radio 3, rose wilder lane, the fountainhead, USA
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The making of Do Pass Go: boardgames in the internet age
Do Pass Go my BBC Radio 4 documentary, airing on Friday April 14th 2017, has its origins in a piece I wrote about the Libyan dictator General Gadaffi playing chess on TV in the run up to his toppling, and … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Children, Culture, Design, Games, Germany, Radio
Tagged boardgames, british museum, climate oasis, culture, dagnis skurbe, essen, friedemanm friese, FTW, Germany, grant dalgliesh, irving finkel, James wallis, jessy bradish, magic the gathering, mombasa, pandemic, royal game of ur, the dice tower, the last spike, tom vasel
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The making of John Ruskin’s Eurythmic Girls
John Ruskin’s Eurythmic Girls is a Radio 3 Sunday Feature which airs this Sunday Feb 26th at 645pm Intellectual and art school champion of medieval art he may have been, but it is John Ruskinās alleged horror of female pubic … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Education, History, Radio
Tagged culture, eurythmics, feminism, John Ruskin, of queens gardens, Queenswood School, sesame and lilies, Victorians
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Ladybird books: Constructing the future past of modern Britain
I used to visit a beloved university English professorĀ and his wife. He had won the Military Cross for hand to hand combat in the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945 but never talked about the terrible things heād seen. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Design, Environment, Germany, History, Media, Uncategorized, War
Tagged 60s, Bachelor of Hearts, books, conway hall, culture, Hardy Kruger, Ladybird books, media, michael balcon, politics, publishing, Sylvia Syms, war, wolf rilla
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How the Space Shuttle Broke My Heart
This weekend’s Radio 4 Extra Floating In Space 3-hour special (9am and 7pm Saturday Mar 1th and iplayer after) with Simon Guerrier explores the history and the fantasy of manned space exploration from the cosmonauts to dreams of Mars … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Culture, Design, Film, History, Politics, Radio, Science, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 70s, Carl Sagan, culture, film, FTW, nasa, Obama, politics, Space shuttle
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The men are weeping in the Oval Office…
Lucy Dichmont and I have made a Something Understood for Radio 4 about Weeping. I knew I wanted to talk about the Wailing Women in the Bible and especially that I wanted to talk again to award-winning poet Andrew McMillan … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, History, Politics, Radio, Religion
Tagged Alice In Wonderland, Andrew McMillan, Something Understood, The men are weeping, weeping
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The Teen Within…
This week’s Something Understood gives voice to people who I reckon are rarely heard on radio. Teenagers. The readings are all done by young actors and much of the music and poetry you’ll hear was written by them, or about … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, France, Germany, History, Media, Music, Radio, Religion
Tagged adolescence, alom shaha, BIG ISSUE, cat stevens, claude tardat, Hairspray, harlem renaissance, janis ian, john steinbeck, John Waters, letter to my younger self, maxim leo, peter capaldi, plum bun, red love, teenagers, the young atheists handbook
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Marriage, Margaret Thatcher & the closet of female expectations
This article first appeared in The Big Issue. Journalism worth paying for (subscriptions available) For years my mother kept an entire cupboard where she used to save up things for my trousseau; the old fashioned concept of a brideās personal … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Design, Food/Drink, History, Politics
Tagged BIG ISSUE, feminism, hostess trolley, Margaret Thatcher, trousseau, V&A, Vivienne Durham
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Sixty years on: Has Cinderella on film got trapped in The Valley of the Dolls?
I rather enjoyed the new live action Disney Cinderella. We’re reviewing it on Front Row on MondayĀ Mar 23rd. But the issues raised here still stand. Imagine Cinderella as a anti social tomboy with cropped black hair who acts well, just … Continue reading
Frozen? That’s not feminism
My daughter finally got me to watch Frozen recently. I think she’s sorry she did. Though I sense 13 year old girls are watching it with a sense of irony and aĀ kind of knowing detachment in the way my … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Film, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Uncategorized
Tagged Casablanca, Disney, elsa, fairytales, feminism, frozen, lady and the tramp, marvel, meryl o rourke, Ming-Na Wen, mulan, richard chamberlain, the slipper and the rose, thor
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