The rain over the last few days nagged at me. Not really annoying the rain, I thought, but odd timing. Why was the onset of rain int he last week of July bugging me. And then I remembered. The kids summer holidays have just started. Hence it starts r[…]

Among those of us with an interest there seems to be a kind of canon of children’s literature which centres on Narnia and the Moomins and then fans outward. I could talk about the Moomins for a thousand years but what about the books that didn&[…]

Now seems as good a time as any to ask this.
When I was small, about 7 or 8, I was staying with family friends in Cheshire, who had a son a couple years older than me. I remember this boy singing me a comic song about an encounter with a ram. The onl[…]

typically frustrating article from the Guardian about marketing films to schools by providing them with teaching aids. It occasionally skirts around doing some analysis but rather than trying to answer any of its interviewees points it just resorts t[…]

…and I am listening to “The First Noel”. A synthesised and re-arranged version of the carol with accompanying flourishes from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. A version better known as the theme tune from “The Box Of Delights&#82[…]