The bend widens out, and before me lies a toy train platform, built lifesized. I crunch up, moving from a path of gravel ballast onto sloping wooden planking. Before and behind me, the rails curve lazily away through the narrow valley, high escarpments on either side pressing inwards and making a sweaty day even closer. Barring the steel lines set … Read More
When To Keep Going
How far would you get if you just kept going?
How To See Airports (And Other Bad Places)
If you were traversing Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow last August, you may have seen a writerly-looking chap sat tapping on a computer, his words being displayed on a large plasma screen over his head. This was the temporary Writer In Residence, Alain de Botton, and he was writing a book about what airports really are.
Hornsea, Askance
Hi. I’m a 38 year old man, living at home with his mum. (Until she’s recovered from her recent surgery. Probably returning to York this time next week). Walking through town last night, I squinted until everything was blurry – until it was 1998 again, the last time I lived here. I listened to someone explaining the finer points of … Read More
Waiting To Be Replaced
Today might be the day I get replaced.
Soft and Prickly: Our Fickle Love Of The Countryside
When it comes to the British countryside, we don’t know which way to turn. In the 17th Century it was something we feared – a chaotic, violent place where Nature, red in tooth & claw, vied for a taste of your blood with bandits, highwaymen, smugglers, murderers and the clinically befuddled. Mention the countryside to Thomas Hardy and he would … Read More
What Is A Staycation?
As the leaves turn golden and Christmas approaches, our thoughts naturally turn to what truly sucked about 2009. Top of my list? “Staycations”. Oh, you horrible, horrible word – a wretched portmanteau of “stay” and “vacation” (and perhaps a silent “bullshit”). British media coverage has been intense. Every newspaper, every radio presenter – such as this one – and every … Read More
Reader’s Digest books: Read and Digest
It’s recently struck me that Reader’s Digest, one of the most popular magazines in the world, is a paper-based blog. Staunchly populist – and conservative and anti-communist, depending on the era – the magazine has been publishing condensed news stories and adverts in a visually arresting fashion since 1922. It’s uncluttered, breezy and the kind of thing you’d read when … Read More