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
Musings
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
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
2022: Saving The Best Til Last
It’s as well to at least try focussing on the good things when you’re looking back over the year that’s ending. And, yes, I managed to eat my share of delicious pizzas over the past 12 months and not once … Continued
Authors, Great and Smallminded
Encouraging news: Society of Authors chair Joanne Harris has seen off a campaign by a handful of hasbeens, bigots and whinyarses to have her compelled to stand down. Despite a lifetime of writing, I’ve never actually been a member of … Continued
Are you leaving Twitter?
So, are you? Or are you one of those who could never be arsed with it in the first place? If you are a regular or semi-regular user of the blue birdie hangout you’ve probably noticed a huge increase in … Continued