Tag Archives: publishing
Ladybird books: Constructing the future past of modern Britain
I used to visit a beloved university English professor 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 he’d 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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What should we read into bookshelf wallpaper?
This article first appeared in The Big Issue Magazine in August 2015 I went to a fancy middle class holiday camp the other week. You know the ones. It was fabulous. We did fencing, crossbows, rode Segways and swam every … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, Design, Media
Tagged books, culture, literature, media, penny woolcock, plato's republic, publishing, roundhouse, utopia
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Richard Dawkins & the humanist’s dilemma: When faced with Islamic State does “moderate” religious discrimination really matter?
This piece first appeared in The Big Issue magazine – journalism worth paying for. Available from street vendors UK wide or subscription. Blackwell’s bookshop in Oxford has 3 and a half miles of books. It’s a wonderful place. The deputy … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Crime and Justice, History, Media, Religion, Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, Babu Gogineni, Blackwell's bookshop, British Humanist Association, Catholic, Christianity, culture, EM Forster, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Hinduism, humanism, India, ISIS, Islam, Islamic State, Leo Igwe, media, Nigeria, oxford, publishing, Richard Dawkins, Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses, Sheldonian Theatre, superstition, Switzerland, terrorism, Valentin Abgottspon, World Humanist Congress
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A mystery for Sherlock: Why won’t big media organisations pay for online photos?
This photo is copyright Samira Ahmed (@SamiraAhmedUK) I posted some photos on Twitter on Sunday taken on a phone at a family party of a Sherlock Holmes cake, which generated a lot of interest. I’m not a professional photographer, but … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, journalism, Media
Tagged BBC, BBC America, FTW, journalism, media, metro, publishing, sherlock, The Poke, twitter
88 Comments
Battling it out with the 70s & The Lamb’s Navy Rum Girl
My earliest registered nightmare (circa 1971): Coming downstairs in the dark to find the TV taken over by a ghost station, broadcasting horrors for the denizens of the night. I didn’t know then of course, that one day there would … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Film, Media
Tagged 70s, Caroline Munro, cinema, culture, feminism, film, James Hunt, Lamb's Navy Rum Girl, Linda Lovelace, media, On The Buses, Paul Raymond, Playboy Club, publishing
20 Comments
Malala, Muslim women and “misery” memoirs
Oct 10th 2014 update: This was originally posted ahead of an Asia House panel discussion about women, freedom and the Islamic world, when the multimillion pound book deal of Malala Yousafzai was announced. It seems just as relevant since her … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, Religion
Tagged books, feminism, Islam, literature, misery lit, publishing
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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
4 Comments
Call Me Sir: Ben Kingsley, Fifty Shades of Gray and Victorian erotica
A tech journalist once told me that if watching tv on your mobile phone was such a great idea, loads of people would have been walking around with a primitive giant tv on their brick sized phones long ago. By … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, Film, Media, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, books, cinema, culture, feminism, Fifty shades of gray, literature, media, Porn, publishing
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Mea culpa: But only after making the money
Sir Mervyn King’s recent admisson that he should have been “shouting from the rooftops” about the dangers of the banking system before the 2008 crash seems to add to my theory, written for The Big Issue about the number of … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Crime and Justice, Culture, journalism, Media, Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged bankers, culture, feminism, journalism, media, politics, publishing
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The Missing Angle on the Arab Spring: The Soviet Era dissident’s tale
I met renowned Polish Jewish journalist, Konstanty Gebert, from Gazeta Wyborcza at an EU conference for Arab journalists last year. His family had mostly died in the Warsaw Ghetto, his mother survived to take up arms with the Communists and … Continue reading
Posted in journalism, Media, Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged Arab Spring, journalism, media, Poland, politics, publishing, Soviet era
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