ENGLAND AT THIS REMOVE.

Beachy HeadAt this distance from the UK, steeped in the clear air of separation from all the received notions and behaviours of one’s homeland that you put on like an old coat as soon as you return, I can’t help feeling that the secret to living in England has to lie in not succumbing to the pessimistic viewpoint propagated by the media and the people who believe the media. You have to find a bit of clear space and look after it and not worry about the rest. Of course, I know now that I always feel this way whenever I’ve been out of the UK for a spell. The only difference from the way I was when I came back from India aged 19 full of unshakeable conviction is that now I know I will lose this certainty just like all the others.

Here's a thing.

And it would probably be helpful if I explained it a bit. But that would imply that I'm taking this seriously, which I'm not, and that I have the time to unpack abstruse cultural theories, which I don't.

Transcendence of the Dolls.

Quite literally a couple of thoughts about a recent Julia Donaldson title, The Paper Dolls, featuring illustrations by Rebecca Cobb.

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Rendition.

I sign a lot of online petitions and write to my MP fairly regularly, mostly through advocacy sites such as 38 Degrees and SumofUs.org. Sometimes I worry about the effect this is having.

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Dead End Geek.

Excuse me while I blow your mind with this here epic treatise on the psychopathology of the geek, and why the geek kings need to stop dragging the reputation of geeks everywhere through the mud with their lazy, fatuous reversion to cliché. And if you’re thinking of complaining along the lines of tl;dr, then please don’t. George Orwell’s essay 'The Lion and The Unicorn' is 23,000 words, and people still read that.

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