Posts by Angus
Who Dares Wins
The BBC has just launched a new drama, SAS: Rogue Heroes. It’s the (almost) true story of the formation of the Special Air Service, and is based on a terrific book by Ben Macintyre. In many ways, it’s a salutary lesson in how it takes real disruptors to do things differently, make change and above all,…
Read MoreSpud-u-don’t-like
Reflections on the week’s ups and downs – and the terrible waste of food at Halloween If the events of the last few months have left you yearning for a period of total, hermit-like isolation, away from the ups and downs of British politics, BBC news reader Ben Brown has been living the dream. Although for…
Read MoreAusten Powers
In troubled times, turning to Jane Austen can provide a little respite. Her prose uses parody, burlesque, irony, free indirect speech and a degree of realism. No shortage of material for her style at the moment, then. Penned over two hundred years ago, some passages resonate today. For example, in Pride and Prejudice, Mr Bennet, unable…
Read MoreAre you getting the message?
Travel so it’s said, broadens the mind. This was presumably murmured wistfully in the era of flying boats and the sheer glamour of being abroad, and well before the days of mass tourism. Still, one of the smaller pleasures of taking an early morning train is the prospect of a calorific Pret croissant and coffee. Now, there’s…
Read MoreMusical Shares
The phrase on many people’s lips this week might have been, who would do that? None more so perhaps, than on those of M People. The Manchester band members were reported to be livid when they heard their 90’s banger, Movin’ on Up, used as Liz Truss’ walk on number for her conference speech. Allegedly…
Read MoreTherese are a few of my favourite things
Johnny Mercer – that’s the American lyricist as opposed to The Rt Hon MP for Plymouth – is responsible for some of the world’s best known hits; Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses and Autumn Leaves among them.He’s also credited with dismissing somebody else’s work with the pithy riposte, “I could eat alphabet soup and…
Read MoreThe Beginning of the End?
Guardian sketch writer, John Crace, is extremely annoying – on a number of counts. It’s not enough that he is a brilliant writer, with a fabulous turn of phrase and a seemingly bottomless well of bons mots. He’s also very funny in a drole, observational sort of way. And, he has thousands of Twitter followers. All…
Read MoreRubbish idea
Photo by zibik on Unsplash Have you ever had shocking jolt, suddenly realising that last night, along with the remnants of the chicken casserole, you threw away your headphones, glasses or even your wedding ring? Try £150m. In what must be one of the most personally frustrating endeavours in the history of humanity, the man who accidentally threw away…
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