Category Archives: War
An embroidered insult to Hitler: A story about hand made things
My Something Understood for BBC Radio 4 this weekend is all about hand made things. You can listen to a clip of here. And the whole programme here. As well meeting a carpenter who makes fossil-inspired objects about of ancient … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Design, Germany, History, Radio, Religion, Uncategorized, War
Tagged Alexis Casdagli, Army, culture, embroidery, FTW, Hitler, morse code, needlework, POW, Royal Navy, Something Understood, Tony Casdagli, war
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Pink Flamingos, red poppies & the fine art of causing offence
I have been pre-occupied with offence these past few weeks. Preparing to interview the Pope of Trash (copyright William Burroughs) ahead of his Nov 8th appearance at Liverpool’s Homotopia festival, I have been starting each day with a John Waters film. … Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, Culture, Film, History, Media, Politics, Radio, Theatre, War
Tagged advertising, Field Marshall, First World War, Home Office, immigration, John Waters, Murray Melvin, Pink Flamingos, Waterboarding
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Oh What A Lovely War Commemoration!
Recently the Prime Minister spoke of his hopes that events to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War would be a “commemoration that, like the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, says something about who we are as … Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, History, Media, Music, Politics, Radio, Theatre, Uncategorized, War
Tagged 1963, 60s, BBC, culture, David Cameron, David Kynaston, elitism, Erica Whyman, Field Marshall Haig, First World War, Joan Littlewood, Michael Billington, Murray Melvin, Oh What A Lovely War!, politics, satire, Theatre Royal Stratford, war
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Casablanca: When refugees were glamorous
This was written for the Spectator Coffee House blog, ahead of the Casablanca night at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on June 22nd, to mark Refugee Week. “I don’t buy and sell human beings,” says Rick to the rival club … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Film, Uncategorized, War
Tagged 40s, Casablanca, cinema, culture, film, Hollywood, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, literature, Nazis, refugees, war
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What the hell’s the Presidency for? Re-assessing LBJ
This is based on my interview with author Robert Caro and fellow American writer, Michael Goldfarb for BBC Radio 3 Night Waves on June 6th. You can listen to the programme here. (last 18 minutes) Which US President won an election with the largest ever … Continue reading
Don’t Go There, Lady
I wrote to journalist and future doctor Lucy Mathen as a child when she presented Newsround. More than 30 years later we met. I wrote a feature about it for The Guardian. And as a result of learning about how … Continue reading
Posted in Children, journalism, Politics, Radio, Science, Travel, Uncategorized, War
Tagged books, charity, culture, India, journalism, Lucy Mathen, medicine, politics
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Something Warhammer This Way Comes
I discovered the world of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K through my son. Warhammer 40K was launched just over 25 years ago. To mark the anniversary I have written a feature about its world of table top fantasy wargaming for the BBC … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Games, War
Tagged culture, FTW, Games Workshop, media, Nottingham, war, Warhammer, zombies
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Women and the Arab Spring
Here are some good links on the speakers at the Women Of The World (WOW) Arab Spring panel discussion 3pm Saturday March 10th it the Purcell Room in London’s Southbank Centre. I’m chairing. Whether you are coming or not, the … Continue reading
Posted in Crime and Justice, Film, journalism, Media, Politics, Uncategorized, War
Tagged Arab Spring, censorship, Egypt, feminism, media, politics
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Afghanistan: NATO’s 10 year feminist experiment
This is some of the further detail from my feature for today’s Guardian that was not in the final edit. It makes reference to two major reports on women and Afghanistan put out this week by Action Aid and Oxfam. … Continue reading
Posted in Education, journalism, Politics, Uncategorized, War
Tagged crime, feminism, Hillary Clinton, politics, terrorism, war
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Half Blood Blues: Jazz, race and Nazis.
When I worked in Berlin in 1998 the trendy record store in the city’s gay-friendly Schoneberg district had a category called “schwarz”(black) music. It took up a lot of the shop and seemed a bizarrely useless generalisation, given the huge … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Film, Germany, Music, Uncategorized, War
Tagged 40s, Berlin, books, Esi Edugyan, Germany, jazz, Louis Armstrong, Nazis, Paris
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