Author Archives: Paul

But no. The former US president and Georgia’s most famous son is 92 today. He entered the White House almost forty years ago and only lasted one term, so it’s understandable to assume that he may no longer be with us. Carter’s presidency was not a great success. America was in recession and he was […]

Practically every other sin is a variation on it. People are mean because they’re greedy, they steal and have affairs because they’re greedy. The most unpleasant right-wing capitalists and left-wing trade unionists are invariably motivated by greed. But greed’s one redeeming feature is that it tends to bring down those who are most susceptible to […]

The elder is in his final year at UCL and living in Camden. The younger has just gone off to Cambridge. And after twenty odd years of bringing up, it suddenly feels a bit weird. Still, I’m free. To do what I want. Any old time. Whenever I feel like it, I can now go […]

I’m talking about the Paralympics. Okay, I’ll admit it – the whole concept makes me feel slightly uncomfortable. Firstly, what constitutes “disabled”? How disabled do the athletes have to be? How do we know it’s a fair and level playing field? And Channel 4’s descriptor of the athletes – “The Superhumans”. Whilst their levels of […]

I went with my friend Brian Jones to see Hunter Davies giving a talk about – what else – The Beatles. In 1967, as a young journalist with The Sunday Times, Hunter was commissioned to write their authorised biography. And he’s earned a handsome living from this association ever since. He was granted unfettered access […]

Is it a national holiday because it’s my 20th wedding anniversary? Or is it simply because everyone knew it was going to be 31 degrees today which is almost unheard of for mid-September? Almost but not quite. The weather was just as beautiful in Islington 20 years ago when I married my current wife. Whatever […]

Was exactly 20 years ago. And it was far from traditional. No paintballing, no pub crawl, no weekend in Estonia, enjoying cheap vodka and even cheaper prostitutes. Nothing. Within a year of meeting my then girlfriend, we’d had a baby. Six months later we bought a wreck of a house and a year after that, […]

I’ve only met two and I’m a big admirer of both. One is Victor Lewis-Smith and the other is Gordon Mac. I went along to my friend John Quinn’s big birthday bash last night and Gordon was behind the decks. South London soulboy turned successful entrepreneur, Gordon founded Kiss FM and it’s hard to think […]

Jamaican ska pioneer Prince Buster died on Thursday aged 78, and I imagine Suggsy and co have all respectfully removed their pork pie hats, acknowledging the depth of their debt to him. They named their band after one of his hits and their own first hit, The Prince, was a paean to Prince Buster. Their […]

Is a famously apt description for politics, and never more so than today. First we had Ann Widdecombe making a fool of herself on Strictly, and now we have Ed Balls doing the same. Ann Widdecombe can almost be forgiven. She and her views have always been, shall we say, “eccentric” but Balls touted himself […]