Author Archives: Paul

It’s that time of the year again. Come on, you know what to do…

Good Friday was always the most miserable day in the Catholic calendar. As a child, I remember any display of cheer being strictly forbidden and every Catholic household being subject to a blanket ban on all forms of enjoyment. It got worse. At 3 o’clock, we had to endure a horrible sombre church service where […]

Not the fact that he was one of the greatest footballers the world has ever seen. Nor the way he became one of football’s most successful and influential coaches at Ajax and Barcelona. No, what endeared him to me most was his attitude to traffic lights. Cruyff believed that most of the traffic lights in […]

Elena Salvoni MBE died yesterday at the age of 95. She was Soho’s most famous maitre d’. A tiny London Italian, she had, since the 1950s, fronted some of Soho’s most celebrated restaurants until her reluctant retirement at the age of 92. Described as “the kindest woman in London” Elena was adored by some of […]

The bomb attacks on Brussels make me think that the majority of Britons will now vote “out”. Like most people, I don’t know whether this will be a good idea or not, but this is what I think will happen. Brussels is the heart of the EU, it’s a metonym for the EU and when […]

I don’t like rugby but I do like it when England are victorious. I’m not remotely nationalistic – it’s just a reaction to the jingoism of the other home nations. I’ve grown tired of Scots who’ll support any team over England. I grew up with second-generation Irish boys who’d side with the IRA over the […]

Not a lot, but I liked him. So I was sad to hear about the death of Paul Daniels yesterday. Not universally adored, he was nonetheless a great entertainer, a phenomenal magician and a huge star. In his 1980s heyday, he famously left his wife for his assistant, Debbie McGee who was twenty years his […]

The death last week of Sir George Martin reminded us that before he produced all The Beatles’ records, he produced comedy hits for Peter Sellers. But, well, thing is, I’ve never found Peter Sellers particularly funny. There, I’ve said it. I’ve almost ruptured myself trying to laugh at The Goons but can only conclude that […]

An incongruous country lane, just off the Edgware Road. When I was a child, we called it Blackberry Way because it was lined with blackberry bushes. My mum would send us up there to steal the blackberries so she could make weapons-grade home made wine. We really thought we were in the countryside. I was […]

I don’t mean next to die. I mean that the songs of Neil Sedaka, 77 yesterday, must surely form the basis of the next hit jukebox musical. He’s written so many and his story is a good one. Huge in the early 60s, Sedaka was finished once The Beatles came along. Then his mother and […]