Author Archives: Paul

Lunch with my friend Dean Webb the other day. Dean is a talented and hugely knowledgeable writer who always tells me things I never knew. His tastes in food are very plain, so we always meet in one of London’s dwindling stock of greasy spoons. This time it was Speedy’s, a little place he’d found […]

Spain scored twice in the last two minutes of the friendly at Wembley last night to grab a 2-2 draw when England had looked certain to win 2-0. “Well”, I said referring to England’s 3-0 victory over Scotland on Friday, “At least we beat the Jocks”. Jocks? My son is 21 and has obviously been […]

Robert Vaughn died this week. He was best known for playing Napoleon Solo in The Man from UNCLE in the 1960s but even I don’t remember that. Though I do remember him in the 1970s playing Harry Rule in The Protectors. No idea what it was about but it all seemed seductively glamorous. Probably rubbish […]

The great man died on Thursday and my bohemian elder sister was a big fan. When I was still at primary school, she lived with about eight other people who wore beads and kaftans in a big shabby flat in Belsize Park. And that’s where I first heard Leonard Cohen. I was intrigued by the […]

Donald Trump is to be President of the United States. Who’d have thought it? Well – and I’m not just saying this – I did. Not because I like him. I loathe him. I think he’s horrible, boorish and unfit for office. But I just knew Hillary Clinton would never win. How useless a candidate […]

Hilarious, eh? The sneering glee with which “liberal” people will set fire to everything Donald Trump represents. We’ve been here before. When Boris Johnson stood as London Mayor, he was dismissed as a “buffoon”. In the General Election, those not voting Labour were denounced as “Tory Scum”. This year, people wanting to leave the EU […]

Though she’d prefer to be known as London’s “Night Czar” for obvious reasons. Congratulations to Amy Lame for being the first person appointed to this role. This honey-voiced American who’s lived here more than half her life is a very welcome appointment. Amy is a funny, fabulous luxuriantly lipsticked lesbian, who founded the riotous Duckie […]

I’ve always loved the Brummies. To me, they’re the most English of English people – situated, as they are in the heart of this sceptred isle. I was up there today and I loved it. A thriving, diverse and vibrant city – a million miles from the much-maligned Birmingham of old: the Bullring, British Leyland […]

Literally. There’s a rather grim stretch of the Harrow Road, not far from where I grew up, that was always known as “Prince of Wales”. Like Swiss Cottage and the Elephant & Castle, it was a neighbourhood named after a pub. And quite a horrible pub. This is where the rough end of Maida Vale […]