I’m a big fan of Taschen, and own quite a lot of their art books. Most of them are excellent. I saw a fat Taschen book on Japanese comics, entitled Manga, at a reduced price, so thought it would be good. It runs to nearly 600 pages, and there&#[…]

I knew I was the target market for this book by page 10, “have you ever wondered why TSV Munich have 1860 as a suffix when the German game didn’t get off the ground until the 1890s?” It’s precisely the sort of thing I have pon[…]

I didn’t realise how much I liked Kirsty MacColl’s music until she died.
I sometimes feel sad listening to her voice, it carries weariness even in the happy songs. An anthology released earlier this year captures it well, all the heartbr[…]

It is rather lovely to have an real ale bouzer almost on one’s doorstep, especially one as nice as the Oakdale. It’s a good size pub, with two big rooms, so I’ve never really felt crowded in there, although at the beer festival a c[…]

It’s Eurovision time again! There are a host of blogs celebrating this, and I’m sure some of them are putting MP3s up. For the next three days, we’ll jump the bandwagon, today offering Britain’s best-ever entry:
Bardo – […]