Celebrity Mastermind
Specialist subject: Laura Ingalls Wilder
Follow me on Twitter
My Tweets
Tag Archives: publishing
The Curse of the Typing Pool
As new technology promises voice recognition typing software, and icon based texting, could the traditional QWERTY keyboard finally losing its dominance? Taken for granted, the keyboard has played a central role in the empancipation of women, but also in their … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, Design, Uncategorized
Tagged culture, feminism, journalism, media, publishing, Sherlock Holmes, Typing
2 Comments
New York Fever: Strutting with Travolta
This is a talk I gave at the British Film Institute last night at the launch of a new book series on World Film Locations in major cities. The books pick 1 key scene and its locations from each film … Continue reading
Noooooo Uderzo Nooooo: Asterix and the afterlife
This article originally appeared in The Guardian online on September 29th and in the print edition on October 1st. In Obelix and Co, a devious young Roman general, Caius Preposterus (a thinly veiled Jacques Chirac) tries to corrupt Asterix’s proud … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Comedy, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Uncategorized
Tagged Asterix, Chirac, culture, France, Goscinny, media, publishing, Uderzo
Leave a comment
From Roots to Amina: A history of the well-meant liberal hoax
The liberal hoax for a “good cause” has a long tradition. Most bizarre in Tom MacMaster’s defence of his long and increasingly reported fake identity as Amina Arraf, an imprisoned lesbian Syrian blogger, was his claim that he was challenging … Continue reading
Posted in Books, journalism, Music, Politics, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged books, Holocaust, journalism, literature, media, politics, publishing, Syria, tv, war
Leave a comment
Whose Bible is it anyway? A discussion on the King James version
After all the celebrations for the poetry and power of the King James Version, I chaired a rather more revisionist public panel discussion for the Royal Shakespeare Company on March 9th. In the atmospheric setting of the Stationers’ Hall, off Ludgate … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, Religion, Theatre, Uncategorized
Tagged bible, books, culture, David Edgar, literature, publishing, shakespeare
Leave a comment
When I Lived In Groovy Times – an interview with the Novelist Linda Grant
I spent a fascinating afternoon with award winning British writer, Linda Grant, this week, discussing her timely new novel, We Had It So Good, (published January 20th 2010) about the babyboomer generation and going through photos she’d dug out for my news cameras, to help analyse … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged babyboomer, books, culture, linda grant, literature, politics, publishing
Leave a comment
Putting a value on the cost of Bookgifting
Government backtracks on funding for Book Trust Monday 27 December 2010 As the Book Trust charity confirms the government will now help the book gifting programme continue in England, Samira Ahmed reflects on how to put a cost on the … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Business/Economics, Children, Culture, Media, Politics
Tagged Book Trust, books, culture, literature, politics, publishing
Leave a comment