Category Archives: Education
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 Ruskin’s 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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We gotta get out of this place: Small town boys & the curse of pop stardom
“I used to scrump apples in the grounds here here,” says Jim Dale, smiling that boyish smile as we sit for our interview in a grand medieval manor house. Now a country house hotel it used to be a school … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Education, Media, Music, Radio, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, Basildon, Carry On, Corby, Dave Gahan, Jim Dale, Paul Morley, Six Five Special
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Young, British and Imam-in-Training: Who we met and why
There were two things producer Georgia Catt and I tried to do with this half hour documentary for Radio 4. One: avoid random isolated Muslim voices claiming to speak for a majority saying “That’s not Islam” about anything problematic, like … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Media, Politics, Radio, Religion, Uncategorized
Tagged BBC, imam in training, Islam, radio 4
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The curious idea of museums
This article originally appeared in The Big Issue magazine. Journalism worth paying for. What are museums for these days? Are collections passĂ©? Northampton City Council’s decision to sell off an ancient Egyptian statue to fund a museum extension, after striking … Continue reading
To go or not to go: The freakonomics of the school reunion
This article first appeared in The Big Issue Magazine: Journalism worth paying for. Available from street vendors across the UK or by subscription. “My generation thought we’d fix the world for free. We were LBJ (Lyndon B J cohnson) technocrats.” … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Education, Film, journalism, Media, Radio, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, freakonomics, Friends Reunited, Grosse Pointe Blank, Hairspray, Harvard, John Waters, Minnie Driver, Steven Levitt, The Red Book
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Why you need to look at Acid Survivors
 I’m doing the Radio 4 Appeal this weekend for the Acid Survivors’ Trust. It’s the only organisation dedicated to ending acid violence and is focussed on helping women and girls who’ve been attacked. The chances are you already know about acid violence. … Continue reading
Posted in Crime and Justice, Education, journalism, Media, Radio, Religion, Uncategorized
Tagged Acid Survivors Trust, Acid violence, Bangladesh, Cambodia, feminism, Pakistan
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Murder, Mirth and Care Bears: The uses of an Oxford English degree
Photo copyright and courtesy of: Ian Fraser at Virtual Archive Writing for news bulletins, writing for standup comedy, writing murders for tv drama, writing for comics and fantasy gaming novels. These were some of the uses to which a group … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Comedy, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Education, Media, Uncategorized
Tagged culture, elitism, English literature, FTW, journalism, literature, media, oxford, publishing, St Edmund Hall, Stewart Lee, terrorism, tv, universities
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Anglos, Diphthongs & Perfect Snogging: Saving the German A-level
This piece was written for The Guardian in August 2012, after A-level results showed the number of UK students taking German had declined to below 5,000 for the first time. There were also significant drops in French and other modern … Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, Culture, Education, Film, Germany, Uncategorized
Tagged 50s, A-levels, Bachelor of Hearts, Cambridge, cinema, culture, film, Hardy Kruger, Schools, Sylvia Syms, universities
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Can we laugh about this? Race on film
I spent an hour with the Film Club charity in Battersea Park School in South London today,(I’m a trustee) discussing the treatment of race and racism on film. It was Anti-Racism Day, apparently. I chose clips from a sample of … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Comedy, Education, Film, Media, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 50s, 60s, 70s, cinema, culture, Douglas Sirk, India, indians, Peter Sellers, sitcoms, Susan Kohner, terrorism, tv
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