This is an article by Frances Wilson. Frances is a pianist, music PR, writer and blogger on classical music and pianism as The Cross-Eyed Pianist. Website: www.crossyedpianist.com. Twitter: @crosseyedpiano Schubert…..makes tears catch at the edge of my eyes; such fragile hope, such powerful emotions. Ian McMillan, poet (via Twitter) I was reminded of Ian McMillan’s […]
This is an article by Peter Divey. I am passionate about visiting churches. I grew up in Norfolk, and towers were everywhere. My family were not religious and we never attended church outside of weddings, baptisms or funerals. Even the smallest of hamlets in Norfolk often had a church, usually a tumbledown graveyard too. I […]
It used to be that most BMW drivers were arseholes. In fact, it used to be that most of the arseholes on the road were BMW drivers. If there was anyone right up your arse even on a 50 road, you could be almost guaranteed that it was a BMW. If someone was flashing their […]
The Harvey Weinstein verdict is being spun as a victory for #MeToo, but really, nobody involved comes out of it well. Harvey Weinstein found guilty in landmark #MeToo moment There is no doubt that Weinstein’s behaviour was disgusting and immoral. He was aggressively trying to shag every woman who came near him looking for a […]
Loony leftists gonna loon: Yorkshire Tea has urged social media users to “try to be kind” after the popular brand became embroiled in a row involving a leading Tory politician. Chancellor Rishi Sunak posted a picture on Friday of him appearing to make a huge tea round for his Treasury staff. The Twitter […]
On the cusp of the Free Speech Union’s launch here’s a really timely interview by Tom Slater at Spiked with Ira Glasser: Glasser, 82, is one of the most important civil-liberties advocates of the past 50 years. He was executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1978 to 2001, helping to turn it […]
Apparently Caroline Flack’s death is the fault of the CPS: Caroline Flack: Crown Prosecution Service under fire for ‘dogged pursuit’ of TV star over domestic abuse charges I agree that the CPS probably should have dropped the case when the man involved said he didn’t want to pursue it. But I don’t really buy the […]
I travelled to London on Tuesday to visit Comedy Unleashed (at the Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green), as my new mate Toby Young was performing. (This is going to be a name-dropping review, can’t really avoid that, so let’s get started with it.) Also, I’d been wanting to go for ages as it’s a […]
San Francisco has become a giant toilet: Each day, up to 30 people stroll in and openly steal goods, costing him hundreds of dollars. A street cleaner showed me a box filled with used syringes that he had collected, then I met two charity workers picking up needles from the pavement. How many do […]
Crop-haired Guardianista has bad blind date with a man who – gasp – may be a Tory. Describe Josh in three words Potential secret Tory As he has agreed to take part in a blind date set up by the Guardian you’d have to say that’s unlikely. I wasn’t previously aware of the Guardian’s Blind […]
Another condescending feminist wants to learn us that our view of Georgian womanhood is all wrong: Sexual favours, swearing and drinking – why everything we think about 19th century women is wrong The imminent adaptation of Emma, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, which happily promises to be more searingly comic than most, nevertheless presents the cast […]
So that Soweto Kinch jazzer who claimed on Newsnight recently that he had been the victim of racism on the train to the ITV studio has given his account of what happened on Facebook. His story, although rather confusing, sounds real, but it all seems like the usual terrible service that you get on trains, […]
Where would the human race be without Slate? Here’s their latest advice column: Dear How to Do It, I (a man) live in a large house along with six brothers, all adults and close to each other in age, two of whom I am having sex with. I am naturally much closer to them […]
I hope anyone who’s going to the pub tonight takes sensible precautions, and brings a straw: According to Nutt, the optimal dose is 5gm a day, which is about a third of a glass of wine or half a pint of light beer. Pubs do not serve 40ml measures of wine, he said, but […]
That Soweto Kinch guy doesn’t sound like someone with a political axe to grind at all, no, not at all: Soweto’s 2010 release The New Emancipation drew its inspiration from 19th century work songs and early blues, exploring the modern resonances of the emancipation story. From debt/wage slavery, to creative oppression in the music industry […]
I was stunned to hear of Roger Scruton’s death yesterday. He wrote to me only last week, telling me that he was enjoying my novel, and that he was in good spirits regarding his health, so I wasn’t expecting this at all. I even posted my letter back to him on Friday. I had seen […]
It might seem strange to celebrate Neil Peart’s life with a video that features an animation of him, rather than the real thing, but it’s a brilliant animation that really highlights his drumming skills. (And it’s one of the classic Rush tracks. Never liked anything they did after the 80s.) Share this article on […]
Why does every young Telegraph newspaper writer – I say ‘writer’ rather than ‘journalist’, because these ‘investigators’ no more get off their chairs and go outside and investigate than I do – have to be woke-friendly? Can they really not hire anyone normal any more? Take this Ed Power hack, who has the intellectually-challenging job […]
Never let it be said that this blog only attacks the left. Consider the story of Tristan Morgan, the folk-singing neo-Nazi who almost incinerated his own head while he was trying to burn down a synagogue in Exeter in 2018 (human torch action at 1:16): Mind you, if he’s a neo-Nazi then he’s probably better […]
The Independent complains that Ricky Gervais has betrayed Hollywood’s tradition of classiness: Ricky Gervais’s performance at last night’s Golden Globes was enough to make Gene Kelly turn in his grave. Once upon a time, Hollywood was synonymous with elegance and class but Gervais’ tirade of nasty and smutty jokes proved that tabloid culture has leaked […]