Cheaper online?
Every now and again someone picks up a book, examines it with interest, then looks it up on their phone, announces it’s cheaper on Amazon and puts it down again. This is fine, I get it (particularly these days, of … Continued
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Culture wars, community and craphounds
‘This is what community looks like,’ was shouted at some point towards the end I think it was someone from the pub, or one of the performers but am not entirely sure due to limited view (though I think of … Continued
Ann Summers: achievements and ambivalence
Obviously the obituaries for Jaqueline Gold talked a lot about the Ann Summers brand, and how Gold was one of the pioneers of mainstreaming women’s sexual pleasure. While I’ve never actually been to an Ann Summers party, I was certainly … Continued
Censorship or sensitivity?
One of the better takes on the recent rewriting-Roald-Dahl fuss was from someone on Twitter who pointed out that their youthful reading had included plenty of Dahl, Enid Blyton and even some JK Rowling… “and I’m woke as fuck!”. I … Continued
New release and launch: London Burlesque
Book launches are always fun, and the launch party for London Burlesque: A Family Album was especially so, being held in a fascinating art space in Canning Town. I got invited along as I already stock some of the stunning books … Continued
Choosing Love
Choose love, because the consequences of choosing hate get worse and worse. Choose love, because choosing hate leads to teenage girls getting stabbed to death in parks in broad daylight (then mocked by bigots even as their devastated families mourn). … Continued
40 Years of the Fetish Scene
Yes, time passes faster as you get older; the years fly by and all that. It’s still a little startling to realise that the UK fetish scene, as most of us involved with it would understand such a thing, has … Continued
Unrepentant book-hoarder here…
You can generally rely on the Gruaniad for an occasional dose of tiresome, smug whinyarsery and this week’s is just in. It’s baaaaaaad to have a lot of books, you can’t have read them all, you’re just being ‘middle class’ … Continued
There there, over-share
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh, on most levels. OK, fair enough, Harry has suffered in ways that no amount of money could really fix: his mum was killed in a car crash when he … Continued
Starting 2023 with a bang or at least some optimism
Not ignoring the fact that many, many people are having a pretty horrible start to 2023, of course. Poverty and inequality are still increasing. Large amounts of space and airtime are still being given to vicious, witless bullies. And yet, … Continued