Among the saddest sights in half-empty London are its theatres. Walk along Shaftesbury Avenue and adjoining streets, and there is theatre after theatre advertising empty shows. The Victorian and Edwardian grand buildings, with their stony solidity, graced with sculptural curlicues and busts of Shakespeare, proudly bearing the names of theatrical greats, squeezed tightly into theRead More
Some places have so little to tell about themselves, and that can be part of their appeal. Take Egypt Bay, for example. It’s a small bay on the northern coast of the Hoo Peninsula, that overlooked piece of land jutting out of the Kent mainland, caught between Essex and Sheppey. The River Thames flows byRead More
One of the cinema’s great gifts to us all is the closing shot. Each art form becomes distinctive through its ability to tell stories through devices unique to itself, and so there is nothing in the novel, theatre, opera or any other dramatic method that has anything to compare with the closing shot of cinema.Read More
I have just finished watching Cheers. It must be three or four times now that I have sat through the entire series of the American sitcom – 275 half-hour episodes, eleven seasons, originally broadcast over eleven years (1982-1993). It began its re-run on Channel 4 in the early weekday hours early into the lockdown period,Read More
There is a checklist I have of steps to normality. Catch a train – done. Sit at a table in a coffee shop and drink coffee while reading newspaper – done. Visit a second-hand bookshop – done. See any sort of cricket played live – done. There are many steps yet to be achieved, alasRead More
The greatest songs are those that demand to be sung again. The reasons for wanting to do so can differ. It may be for the song’s great popularity among a particular set of people, who find self-identification in hearing it once again. It may be in the quality of the songwriting, whose subtleties compel theRead More
After four months of Coronavirus lockdown, I was able to sit once more in a coffee shop, drink my coffee and read a newspaper. It felt like returning to myself. The shop was a Costa branch; it’s about fifty yards down the road from where I live. The shop has re-opened for a while now,Read More
Something in all of us yearns for the sea. I am travelling on a train. I don’t know when exactly; it might be the late 1980s or early 1990s. The train has come from London and is heading along the north Kent coast. I am headed for Whitstable, to see family. It is summertime, andRead More
Among the many allusions, startling images and examples of mischievous wordplay that litter Bob Dylan’s new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, this gem from ‘My Own Version of You’ is a favourite: I pick a number between one and two And I ask myself, “What would Julius Caesar do?” What is Dylan asking the listenerRead More
I have been going round and round in circles. With all of the interesting and historical and often beautiful sites on offer, near to home or within a reasonable walking distance, increasingly I have found myself drawn to one small corner of Rochester. The Riverside development is a major regeneration programme, converting a large areaRead More