January 1996, January 2025

Not long ago we went to walk the alpacas at Botany Bay farm on the edge of London. A charming experience with a passionate farmhand and photogenic animals.

1982 to 1987

Growing up by the Mersey in the 1980s, I used to hear the old air raid sirens being put through their weekly paces. I think the nearest one was at Garston docks. Along with ship foghorns, it’s one of the sounds of my youth. The tests carried on until the end of the Cold War.

Is this the greatest line in One Battle After Another?

A few weeks in 1990

The plague started with whole sentences said sarcastically, a superficially positive statement turned mordantly into a negative. “Oh yeh, I’d love to do that”.

Early 1980s

In junior school the class had collective recorder lessons, each of us equipped with a black and white Yamaha descant recorder. What I recall most is that I liked playing F#.

December 1991

I’m leaving aside jazz here.

In Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, the protagonist Mizoguchi has a stutter. At one point, it is suggested that stutterers speak more fluently in a second language.

February 2026

2.30 am on a school night. It’s been a while.

January 2026

January 2026

First I wanted to know whether I could run in -20C. Then if so, I wanted to know what it felt like.