Terence Blacker

Profile: Full name: Terence Blacker Area of interest: Society, culture, politics, environment Journals/Organisation: The Independent Email: terblacker@aol.com Personal website: Website: Terenceblacker.com | Independent.co Blog: Blacker Blog Representation: Terenceblacker.com / contacts | The Agency Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/terenceblacker

Biography: About: http://terenceblacker.com/profile.html Education: Wellington College, Berkshire; Trinity College, Cambridge Career: After university, spent time working in horseracing and riding as an amateur jockey; then became a bookseller at Parks for eighteen months; then worked in the publishing industry in London for ten years until 1983, leaving his job to become a professional writer and also developing a career as a journalist: wrote the 'Harvey Porlock' (book critic) column in The Sunday Times and also a column for Publishing News see: Terenceblacker.com / profile Current position/role: The Independent: columnist also writes/has written for: regular column for The Author Other roles/Main role: author (adults and children), journalist, critic Other activities: active member of PEN (Poets, Essayists and Novelists) and of EAW (East Anglian Writers) Disclosures: Viewpoints/Insight: Achuka.co: interview, 2001 Writers online: questions & answers, 2001 Guardian.co: Terence Blacker's top 10 tales of literary villainy Independent.co: Novelists have responsibility as well as power - 7th March 2008 Broadcast media: Video: Controversy/Criticism: Doctor of Journalism blog: Is Terence Blacker Italian?, 21st February 2008 Awards/Honours: Other: Son of General Sir Cecil Hugh Blacker (Daily Telegraph obituary), and brother of sculptor, Philip Blacker

Books & Debate: Wikipedia Bibliography Terenceblacker.com/books WorldCat/Identities ✒ Terence's page at Amazon ✒ Latest work: You cannot live as I have lived & not end up like this: the thoroughly disgraceful life & times of Willie Donaldson OCLC 181422060, 2007, review here by Oliver Pritchett Speaking/Appearances: Debate:

The Independent: Column name: Remit/Info: Society, culture, politics, environment Section: Role: Columnist Pen-name: Email: terblacker@aol.com Website: Independent.co / Terence Blacker Commissioning editor: Day published: Friday and (usually) Tuesday Regularity: Twice weekly Column format: Friday: Lead item plus two more; Tuesday: Single item Average length: Fiday: 850 words (typically: 580,120,150); Tuesday: 800 words

Articles: 2013 If the love light is in your eyes, you maybe need to see an optician - At last we have some codification of rock lyrics - 18th June Frankie Fraser: We can’t seem to stop ourselves falling for these old villains - This gangster is treated with a strange amount of indulgence by the press and public - 14th June Don’t think you have to shout loudest to find happiness in life - The role models here are ruthless figures like Sir Alan Sugar or the sneering bosses on Dragon's Den. There is, boys and girls, another way - one that shuns the limelight - 4th June The Fall: The glamour of sexual violence, as only seen on TV - If only writers would think twice about sexually motivated murder - 28th May The Lambton dispute: Everything wrong with Britain in one sorry family saga - The men of the family, father and son, have been treated kindly by the press. But to the outside eye these easy-living aristocrats seem quite ghastly, in fact - 21st May Forget badgers. If we really care about animal welfare, it's time to put a stop to mega-farms - Proposals for what are called mega-farms have been rejected in the past, but now a significant change of attitude seems to be taking place - 14th May How the fall of QPR restored my faith in football - It may sound wimpishly at odds with the spirit of the game, but I have discovered that I would prefer to support a team owned by someone I can respect - 6th May The Queen has played her part superbly. But is Charles up to it? - An 87-year-old woman has earned the loyalty of millions by never once allowing the pressures of life or normal human frailty to impinge on her performance - 30th April 45 Things To Do In England (To Confirm You’d Rather Go Abroad) - VisitEngland has come up with a list of 101 Things To Do In England. On the evidence of the list, the reasons for staying put are not compelling - 23rd April Getting older is inevitable – but a late middle age meltdown isn’t - Andrew Marr, who says he is "lucky to be alive" after a stroke brought on by intense exercise, is at that dangerous age when all sorts of pressures can lead to collapse - 17th April New BBC show ‘The Village’ is okay, but too much bad rural-set TV has put our brains out to pasture - We are living through fascinating times, so why do we prefer fairy-tales of good and evil to honest thought-provoking drama? - 10th April At least Di Canio is honest about his fascist views - unlike his critics - Our risk-averse culture becomes less tolerant of dissent each week - 2nd April Edit out the sex and the audience is the loser - This new coyness about sex is blamed on – or credited to – the great god of marketing - 26th March Why can’t we do comedy as brave as South Park? - Trey Parker and Matt Stone avoid easy targets and take on liberal shibboleths - 19th March Does our new national identity have to be quite so life-affirming? - Danny Boyle's opening ceremony was a television event, not a blueprint for national identity - 12th March The Met Office have warned will be the most extreme spring on record, how can we prepare? - What the most severe weather in the history of the world ever, ever, EVER tells us about our modern anxiety about virtually everything - 8th March Groping for a new sexual etiquette – and turning into New Victorians - 5th March Trip to Mars: That’s one giant leap for a middle-aged couple from Sunningdale - The first humans to visit Mars could be a married couple, after organisers said that only a “tried and tested” partnership could cope - 1st March The real scandal behind horsemeat is the struggle of smallholding British farmers - 26th February Stupidity is contagious – just watch the television news headlines - From mindless juries to Mantelgate, it seems a new virus is raging - 22nd February Goodbye to the Big Society: Money comes first, a better world second - The Tories do love someone who stacks shelves. They represent enterprise - 19th February PE in school: Actions would speak louder than words - Helping children grow up healthy is an essential part of education - 15th February Neither cuddly, nor evil – why do foxes makes fools of us all? - Our common sense about foxes has been eroded by the fantasies of film - it is time for some sanity to return to the debate - 12th February As Huhne and Pryce have discovered, divorce can be a mystery to those involved – but not to the press - The days between the equal marriage bill and St Valentine's day should be a time to celebrate love; instead it's divorce that fascinates us most - 8th February Commandments for today? Here’s my ten best - The writer and philosopher Alain de Botton today released his ten commandments for atheists. They're fine, but lack a little imagination... - 4th February The EU has changed Britain – and mostly for the better - Besides the money for infrastructure projects, EU membership has given Brits the chance to see how Europeans do things, and what we could do better - 1st February It’s your fault that you’re so fat and poor - Rather than control the excesses of big business, this Government prefers to make snobby comments about people eating in front of the telly - 25th January Radio 4 want Will Self as writer-in-residence. But becoming a national treasure carries a heavy price - 22nd January The National Lottery is a national disgrace - This institution seduces punters into a pernicious fantasy of overnight riches and contributes to our something-for-nothing culture - 18th January The world has gone mad if Julie Burchill can’t stir things up and cause offence - This row shows the sensitivity police are ever more powerful and vigilant - 15th January John McCririck is suing Channel 4 - but it's not age that holds him back, it's aging attitudes - John McCririck can’t complain about “ageism” at 72. The real problem is a certain sort of baby boomers who just can’t let go - 11th January Whatever your age, there’s an anxiety that’s just for you - The modern advice culture is enough to stress anyone out - 8th January Samuel L. Jackson is right about bad Hollywood endings, but then real life isn't much better - At work, in love and in life, no one has worked out the third act - 4th January

Articles: 2012 The New Year Dishonours list: Recognition for those who did their worst - There has been no shortage this year of nauseating figures in public life - 28th December The year of doing things shamelessly or: What I learned in 2012 - The year of spanking past and the year of bloodthirsty sanctimoniousness to come - 21st December We aren’t proper friends – so do I really owe you a Christmas card? - Sending rushed missives to distant acquaintances says nothing about friendship - 18th December Square eyes, warped souls: In every sense screens are playing a bigger part in British lives - No other country buys as much online, but does our digital dependency comes at the price of everyday fulfilment? - 14th December ‘Play safe and always avoid risk’ is a sad lesson to teach our children - Kids these days have an exaggerated faith in formal qualifications over practical experience. What's wrong with them? - 7th December From the Pope's new Twitter account: Anyone know if it’s a mortal sin to end a tweet with OMG? - Through a quirk of predictive text, our writer is able to anticipate the pope's first batch of holy tweets - 4th December The greenbelt has untold social and, yes, economic benefits. We shouldn't need reminding - The think-of-the-kids banner always heralds some unwise and unpopular Government policy, proposals to build on the greenbelt are no exception - 30th November The downfall of UBS trader Kweku Adoboli is another morality tale from the City. But have we learnt anything from the Great Crash? - We ought to have spurned the grabby ethic of the City - but did the opposite - 27th November Civility breaks out on a rail journey to hell - It seems that some of the Olympic good humour lingers on, even for commuters - 23rd November Oldsters are wrong to fire shots at their offspring - An email from a grandfather bitterly disappointed in his children has reignited the young vs. old debate, and Philip Roth is showing his lighter side - 20th November A new officer class is required: one that has nothing to do with social class - Ties are going out of fashion and, with them, leadership itself, but it is when things are falling apart that we need authority most - 16th November Thursdays in the Park and the undignified rise of grey sexiness - Thanks to Hilary Boyd's new book and films like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, late-flowering love is finally daring to speak its name - 13th November Close encounters: David Cameron, Piers Morgan and alien life - What would our world leaders and trendsetters do if they encountered extra-terrestrial beings? - 9th November The slow work of grieving in a headlong world - Maurice Saatchi feels it would be a "monstrous betrayal" of his late wife to move on - 6th November Why do we blame political apathy on politicians, when it's the people who are at fault? - We'd rather vote in Strictly Come Dancing than a general election, because we don't want to think. We'd rather just feel - 2nd November I’m confused. Is female nudity now demeaning or empowering? - It is odd to have such dual morality when it comes to self-exposure - 30th October From Leveson to Jimmy Savile: our love for public inquiries is more about entertainment than truth - Figures like George Entwistle, who are not made for television, can appear weak and indecisive when they are merely being honest - 26th October We've toppled the turbines in Norfolk. But we had to go round the houses - Our national energy policy is big on emotion and hot-air, but small on common sense - 22nd October The Sorry News: What do Ashley Cole, Lewis Hamilton and Nick Clegg have in common? - They all know how to pull off the celebrity apology - 12th October If the bald look is a boon in business, why doesn’t it work in politics? - The bald head apparently now represents potency and decisiveness, but shiny-headed men are still on the sidelines - 9th October We need our fools – even you, Jeremy - Too much good taste is dangerous. Bullying people who offend into silence will only make our society duller and more monolithic - 5th October It's a seductive business, this hiving off aspects of your personality. Just ask Grant Shapps - The Tory co-chairman used to like being called Michael Green. And who can blame him? In the age of multiple identity, we all do it. Don't we? - 2nd October There's hypocrisy in the way our culture salivates over Kate - but scolds others for doing so - Whether it's the Sun's Page 3 photos or long-lens snaps of the Duchess - we've become lightly pornified over the last years. So let's drop the two-faced outrage - 21st September It’s comforting to move among liberals – but you get fewer laughs - Zadie Smith says she has not met any nice, intelligent Conservatives. Perhaps she should get out more. They're a far funnier bunch than the lefties - 18th September A spirit of daring is in the air. Let’s just hope the BBC notices - Armando Iannucci is right to criticise our national broadcaster - for too long we've had nothing but blandness on the box - 14th September Now we can see the showbiz misery memoir for the fraud it is - We're used to tales of celebrity hardship, sharing stories of destructive youth and how they've overcome all the addiction and bullying. But now it's time to move on - 11th September For better or worse, Oaksey takes age of the amateur with him - reading the obituaries of Lord Oaksey, who died this week, is like being transported into another universe - 7th September 'Spasticus' and the crime of condescension - Morons and bigots set our cultural agenda, not the sensible majority - 31st August Fifty years after the satire boom, the country needs it more than ever - Britain today is just as socially stratified and morally bogus as it was in 1962 - 28th August The world's most political animal - Panda diplomacy has always been a squalid business - 24th August Trust Branson to make it clear that all sport is really about money - Those suffering from what doctors call Post Olympic Depression Syndrome are having difficulty coming to terms with a world in which the British do not win - 21st August Smoking - the habit the world loves to hate - Wines and spirits cause far more collateral damage than tobacco - 17th August A break from shopping is what we need - The only faith in this Sunday trading debate is the worship of profit above all else - 14th August Who are you trying to kid, Martin? - Most writers understand the need to lead a double life - both public and private - 10th August Why help people ruin their lives? - After this MPs' report, bookmakers must hardly be able to believe their luck - 3rd August The professor, the model and the human spirit - Paul Frampton's love for a young Czech woman has landed him in an Argentine jail for smuggling drugs - 31st July The wind farm myths are finally nailed - Who could be surprised that a survey of those who never see a turbine reveals they are in favour of their use? - 24th July Generation Sloth - victims of a betrayal - Those not encouraged to take exercise at school will slip into idle adulthood - 20th July Could the people who are supposed to be in charge please grow up? - The idea has withered that our leaders owe it to society to take what they do seriously - 17th July A pint of milk isn't cheap when it comes at this price - There has been a fashion among social historians for taking a source of simple food and tracing the complicated ways it has impinged on human society - 13th July The British have started to enjoy failure - It is strikingly new, this cheerful embracing of the sporting spirit at the expense of simply winning - 10th July What's the point of getting divorced if nobody's going to get the blame for it? - When the famous turn it into self-serving media fodder, it sets a ruinous example to the rest of us - 7th July A cut-out-and-keep guide to being British - Useful phrases include "Is this deductible?" and "I'm registered in the Isle of Man" - 3rd July Why do we approve of royal riches? - The double standard about unearned wealth is no small matter - 22nd June It's a fascinating time for love – but TV can't keep up - As for the scene of a sexual nature about which we had been warned, it was hilariously coy and tame - 19th June Let's end the hypocrisy of 'Sport for all' - Arguing that the richer sports become, the better for everyone is utterly bogus - 15th June Our society is lazy and workshy, not just some families - Those abusing the system have learned their lessons from the rulebook of contemporary capitalism - 12th June Clegg a frustrated writer? Frustrated politician, surely - Clegg, the would-be writer, has stepped forward, as tentative and unsatisfactory as Clegg, the politician - 8th June The one thing worth celebrating in this beanfeast of a Jubilee - Orwell's case against the disdain of British patriotism by Europeanised intellectuals still rings true - 29th May Behind the times on those behind bars - It is difficult to see how any fair-minded person could argue against this ruling - 25th May Elizabethans we would rather forget about - The first Elizabethans had Shakespeare, we had Harold Pinter; they had Sir Walter Raleigh, we have Fred Goodwin; they had Francis Drake, we have Simon Cowell - 22nd May I'm not taking a daily pill if I'm not sick - Doctors do wonderful work. But it's time they stopped prescribing to society - 18th May It's our leaders, not us, who need to show more character - The Way We Live: At the top, there is greed and elsewhere a weary cynicism has taken hold - 15th May This Olympic torch relay smacks of propaganda - Muscular men and nubile girls waft around in robes like extras from Ben-Hur - 11th May The 10 keys to being happy and highly ineffective - Here is a thought which does not require diarising: I don't want to live like over-wound celebrity automatons - 8th May The cult of the self has done for leadership - The modern idea of management is that it is the aggressive pursuit of self-interest - 4th May The public has bought the myths of the vast wind energy industry - The energy business presents itself as if it were some sort of green charity - 1st May Hysteria over cruelty is not helpful - By focusing on the particular the charities have lost sight of the bigger picture - 30th April Don't confuse talk with genuine conversation - An excess of online chat will make us lonelier, more supine and self-obsessed - 24th April A worse role model than any Page 3 girl - No ambition, lots of parties and a much photographed bottom. That's Pippa - 20th April Ways for us big kids to enjoy the great outdoors - The Way We Live: Here are my 11¾ things to do before you are 50 - 17th April Trolls and micro-skirts are our brand - The giant screen in the Olympic Stadium could fill up with enraged, ill-spelt 'opinions' - 13th April Sympathisers' who are merely showing off - It is not enough to feel something; one must be seen to feel it - 3rd April Artists have a duty to cheer us all up - Claims for the life-saving powers of art are braver than they seem in times of austerity - 30th March So who do the litter-bugs take their cue from? - Unless an area is an area of special beauty, it is taken for granted - 27th March Sentamu is the best hope for the Church of England - If the church is to return to the centre of national life, it will be through the passion, emotion and tradition of faith - 20th March Overweight, overexposed and over here - TV makes overeating and then starving oneself into inspirational drama - 16th March Yes, they do still make them like Captain Oates - Acts of astonishing bravery take place in war zones but rarely remain in the memory - 13th March Wolf-whistles aren't matters for the courts - Making relatively trivial acts into crimes puts women in role of victims - 9th March Moving to the countryside can be more punishment than reward - The Way We Live: There is more time and energy spent every day simply on surviving – driving to the shops, getting logs in, keeping nature at bay - 6th March How did the online me end up so much nicer than the real me? - It is one of those moments when news from the virtual world has kicked real life off the front pages. Google has taken upon itself the right to pass on information of everyone's online life; meanwhile, the mini-chat site Twitter is six years old, and the Twitter 100, a chart of the most influential mini-chatters, has been published - 2nd March The Establishment has gone, but are the powerful of today any better? - Those who reach the top now have little interest in playing a part in public life - 28th February Marriage rarely lasts for life – so how about vows fixed to 10 years? - It has become just fine to show public contempt for the person with whom you once agreed to share your life - 21st February Say what you like, the world still judges us by the way we speak - When an application for employment is written as if to a friend – "OMG this job is well interesting" – it is unlikely to lead to an interview - 17th February JFK's intern was no victim – she was just attracted to a powerful man - It is open season once more on the randy American presidents of the past - 15th February We need more class consciousness, not less - That old favourite, the British class system, is due for yet another anguished examination - 10th February Facetiousness isn't funny, it's tiresome and irrelevant - Most comedians lose the capacity to write sparky, original comedy in middle age - 7th February When language is too rich for everyday use - It would be easy to portray the recent spat between Professor Geoffrey Hill and Carol Ann Duffy as one of those literary catfights in which the world of poetry seems to specialise - 3rd February Slow down, and the search for happiness might take care of itself - The Way We Live: The need for escape helps explain why 'The Artist' is making millions - 31st January When a refusal is more noble than an honour - Reading the roll of honour-refusers, one begins to understand why those in power preferred to keep it under wraps - 27th January Sex and the absurdity of male optimism - In these prim and disapproving times, the breaking news that men become stupider in the presence of women is unlikely to win much sympathy - 20th January Enough of townie prejudice against the countryside - Most of the time, those of us who happen to live in the country are happy to ignore the casual urban prejudice which characterises British politics and the media - 17th January Don't sneer if a Big Mac helps your children read - Yet cynicism, of course, is what happens in a market-led society - 13th January We're not world class at many things, but looking after animals is one - It's pleasing that British morality can influence tough foreign farmers - 10th January Things go better with Kate - She sprinkles the royal fairy dust with occasional visits and her name on letterheads - 6th January Match-fixing is a curse the UK invited in - Britain is notable for the way it has encouraged gambling over the past 10 years - 3rd January

Articles: 2011 In 2012 the Eton wall game will become an Olympic sport - The end of 2011 brings a moment of small satisfaction to some of us in the prediction business - 28th December Home-made or just very small? The truth about Christmas cards - It is a yuletide paradox that you can know someone so well that sending them a card is an exercise in futility - 20th December The new fad for fairy tales shows our retreat from complex reality - In these stories, it is fine to laugh at ugliness, to cheer the killing of giants, to glow with pleasure when a helpless princess is brought to life with a kiss from a handsome man - 13th December A list of my favourite things to hate in 2012 - It is the moment in the year when, by age-old tradition, anyone with a public voice is asked to list their favourite books, films or CDs of the year - 9th December Comedy no better than a Victorian freak show - Like Gervais and Merchant, Brooker wants to exploit while deploring exploitation - 6th December Just how grave is sex addiction? - Would it be heartless to suggest that here is one problem we don't need to worry about? - 2nd December Go easy on your critics, professor. A letters-page spat is surely enough - The way we live: Ferguson seems to have been in a particularly bad mood recently - 29th November Hugh Grant, my missing team-mate - He went away one of us and came back a star. Now I can see why everything had changed - 25th November Dangerous weapons that are... books - Destroying a community's access to books is a blow against independence of thought - 18th November When the old are there to be laughed at - Those who refuse to play the jokey part required of them tend to get punished - 11th November Alarmism that's no help to children - There is something distinctly iffy about the way this survey’s data has been used - 4th November Could Ken's civic-spirit win over voters? - It’s a touching scene, Ken, the women he impregnated surrounded by their growing family - 25th October Give jockeys a fair crack of the whip - Jockeys remain below stairs in hierarchical sport of racing - 18th October As obscene as any banker's bonus - There has never been a moral scam quite as shameless as the National Lottery - 14th October Ronnie Wood, a heroic talent of our time - An artist who encapsulates everything great about modern Britain - 11th October Prudent is last thing they want us to be - There are those – and I am not making this up – who honestly believe that party conferences are a waste of time - 7th October Vicky Pryce and the curse of shared pain - The best way to avoid being seen as a victim is to keep quiet - 4th October You still gotta stick it to The Man, man - One by one, the chicks and dudes of yesteryear are having their say - 30th September We seem to think we have a right to litter - Infantilising people is hardly likely to make them more adult - 27th September Writing about your life can shut it down - There is something undignified, even a touch absurd, about someone agreeing to tell the story of his life, only to change his mind when the words have taken shape on the page - 23rd September Politicians have problems with sex - Every walkabout and every appearance is part of a process of seduction - 20th September Ordinariness has its value - A rare literary treasure has just become available on eBay - 16th September Behind the spin lies a builders' bonanza - An administration concerned with freedom - the freedom to make money - 13th September We can all learn from Gwyneth - As she says, life can indeed be complicated - 9th September The public school myth of 'character' - That quiet sense of entitlement among the privately educated - 5th September A career freakout is no bad thing - The film director Steven Soderbergh may not have been sitting on a beach over the past few weeks, but it is surely no accident that he has finally reached an important decision about his life at this moment in the year. He has decided to become an artist - 2nd September A mansion can be a burden, not a blessing - What a miserable experience it must be to be born into a great family, with a vast house - 30th August When my team improve, so do I - This column may soon become more openly aggressive. It will scythe down opposition with a brisk ruthlessness. It will be populist and controversial, but then will unexpectedly quote Nietzsche and Orwell in order to justify its position - 26th August I'm all for mentors – just not George Osborne - Social Studies: It is time to move beyond the hand-wringing when it comes to the lost and alienated - 23rd August National service is the answer... - ... but not as we know it - 19th August Love that doesn't last still has value - Some good things last only a matter of days, or even a night - 16th August At last, we're growing up about animals - At the end of a difficult week, some small comfort is to be derived from Hollywood - 12th August Inappropriate flirting – the great modern sin - Social Studies: It is not only the groupies who have been giving Assange grief - 9th August The Tories are out to wreck the countryside - It is as reliable a part of high summer as farmers grumbling about the harvest - 5th August Time for us all to de-clutter our brains - The human brain may now have reached its capacity - 2nd August Keeping the magic alive after 'I do' - How to be happy though married - 28th July Why we're all being driven to extremes - Cars may be necessary to everyday life, but they are no longer a force for good - 19th July Bourgeois angst? Life is too short - If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. In our great national melting pot, one section of society is being systematically excluded from what we read or see on our screens - 15th July Get rich quick by being 'green' - Finding places to put onshore turbines is becoming more difficult - 12th July Some useful received ideas for the BBC - In his first detailed statement to the public, Lord Patten, the new chairman of the BBC Trust, has rather daringly invoked the great novelist Gustave Flaubert. The corporation is in danger of "drowning our viewers and listeners in a small metropolitan pond of stereotypes and prejudices, what Flaubert called 'received ideas'", he said - 8th July Liberals' at their most cowardly - Censorship in 2011 involves shifting the blame on to others - 5th July Prurience posing as compassion - Last night, a grim 21st-century tradition was observed on BBC television. Within days of the jury returning a guilty verdict in a high-profile murder trial, an hour-long documentary about the case was broadcast at prime time - 1st July It's hard to say what's great about Britain - Our national image has become perversely anti-national - 28th June Happy your online life is an open book? - As if we were caught up in some science fiction B-movie, a war is being fought over the control of our souls - 24th June Rock 'n roll's rudest hits: Is society stifling the true spirit of rock 'n' roll? - Since its earliest days, popular music has had the power to shock. But society's become obsessed with not causing offence - 23rd June How much is that doggy in Westminster? - Nowhere are men and women in more need of a civilising canine influence than in the House of Commons - 23rd June Relieve you of that critique, madam? - Several times this week I have been on the receiving end of benevolent prejudice - 17th June Not every adulterer is a villain - A Pinter-Bakewell affair could not possibly remain private today - 14th June My charter for a news blackout - There are moments when a few weeks in a monastery become irresistibly tempting - 10th June The value of a price tag on nature - The natural world cannot survive Osborne's cheerful free-market libertarianism - 7th June There's more to a book than just the text - A letter from a young reader in California and an email from an eminent headmaster arrived on the same day - 3rd June Standing up for rabbits' rights - Concern for animals has a slightly unfortunate political pedigree. Hitler was tender-hearted towards pets - 27th May In the grip of slavering prurience - Newspapers vie with one another to convince their readers that this tawdry, trivial stuff is somehow important - 24th May The great writers' guide to happiness - Cyril Connolly warned that one should beware of "charming failures" - 17th May Comedy's a serious thing, Woody - Creators of comedy, by one of life's cruel paradoxes, want above all to be taken seriously - 13th May Rich soup for the national soul - The Rich List is a propaganda tool for unconstrained capitalism - 10th May No appetite for Jamie's revolution - Americans do not like to be told what to eat, least of all by well-heeled British celebrities - 6th May Going up, going up, going up - Football can represent the best as well as the worst in human nature - 29th April We need more sex from our authors - Young writers have learnt to regard sex, like humour, as an area best avoided - 26th April Why so embittered, Martin? - The surprisingly large number of English people who heartily dislike their own country are in for a trying few days - 22nd April So much for a nation of volunteers - Perhaps we should simply admit that the British are, by nature, slobbishly anti-social - 19th April Why God will smile on Lady Gaga - Praise the Lord, Lady Gaga is to release an Easter single - 15th April Shopping locally is a political act - Governments and councils may be bullied by supermarkets, but we can vote with our wallets - 12th April Tell-tale signs that change is in the air - It is the moment of the year when nature stirs and colour and warmth seep slowly back into the world around us - 8th April We're saved by having nothing to do - By inflicting hours of tedium my school did many of us a huge favour - 5th April Those who annoy us, we salute you - Perhaps it was the pressure of the moment, or maybe the prime ministerial stiletto is not as sharp as it was - 1st April Land-sharks first, local people second - Targets which have saved huge green areas are to be scrapped - 29th March The Budget of Ken's dreams - There was a most unusual case of crossed wires in the House of Commons this week - 25th March New Europe plays all the best tunes - Lowbrow music may not be the sophisticated, but it can be revealing - 22nd March An empty title can't hide tragedy - Wootton Bassett will soon become Royal Wootton Bassett - 18th March The sport of kings and the ruthless - If I'd won more races as an amateur jockey, I'd have fonder memories - 15th March While my guitar gently consoles - Bad news, pop pickers. Phil "In the Air Tonight" Collins is hanging up his drumsticks and will be playing no more - 11th March Why is being alone social defeat? - The act of reading in an atmosphere of quiet is now eccentric - 8th March The surest way to kill comedy - Playing safe is the enemy of comedy. Ask Jim Davidson - 1st March No one can be funny all the time, Ben - Ben Elton has bombed in Australia: cue mocking laughter and smug chortles - 25th February Adultery is not only a case of villain and victim - What happened, or didn't, between the young Mr and Mrs Dennis should be of no interest to anybody - 22nd February How to market your child star - As the squeeze tightens, families all over Britain will be looking around for a little financial miracle to help them out - 18th February You can't silence songs of the past - South African whites are wrong to try to censor music like "Kill the Boer" out of existence - 15th February Kick the bullies, not the habit - I felt a genuine pang of sadness at this week's news that Barack Obama has given up smoking - 11th February The bullying insiders of British humour - Establishment bovver-boys like Coren or Clarkson target those without a voice - 8th February Pity those who are 'too busy' to read - Closing libraries would be a grievous assault on citizens, particularly children - 4th February Why are we so scared of silence? - People are so afraid of silence that they are prepared to have their privacy invaded - 1st February The upstairs, downstairs society - Pin-striped and in a chauffeur-driven car, Andrew Neil has been driving around Britain in search of privilege - 28th January Sins of the fathers? Not necessarily - The betrayal of family secrets is excused on the grounds that the author is exploring his own sacred self - 25th January Give them a stake in our democracy - Talking in a prison library not so long ago, I was startled to learn of the prisoners' favourite writer - 21st January A dream job for a chancer on the make - The story of Mark Kennedy will be hard to turn into a feel-good film - 18th January We should hire more people like Miss Rusty, not fire them - It is rather early in the year to be making nominations for the annual Pride of Britain award for heroes of everyday life, but it would be a surprise if there are stronger candidates than the teacher known to her pupils as "Miss Rusty" - 15th January Australia is still the lucky country - Neighbours have helped each other out. Those interviewed were stoical, even viewing the wreckage of their homes - 14th January Same stories, different headlines - There will be a survey revealing that women are better than men - 11th January

Articles: 2010 Top marks for green Australians - Because the world's New Year dawns in Australia, the celebrations are taken seriously here - 31st December A writer writes to be read, after all - Tweeting feels like a seductive form of anti-writing. It reduces. It flattens - 27th December They don't go over the top Down Under - It is a big Australian party, but not quite what an outsider would expect - 24th December Protest - if you care about our landscape - Thousands more pylons could be added to the 22,000 which currently exist - 21st December The good that comes from revolt - Students have dismissed the assumption that this is a cosseted generation - 14th December What if Bilo made a film about us? - The media have underestimated this sophisticated director - 10th December A triumph of human hubris - The Qatar World Cup is the global equivalent of leaving all the lights on - 7th December Why writers are mugging one another - Creative writing courses pay less attention to words than to the pitch - 30th November Sometimes you can be too dignified - It has been one of those moments when there has been a general scurrying back to the warmth and safety of yesterday - 26th November Modern love is just lust in the ether - There is something peculiar about a relationship filtered through a tiny screen - 23rd November Rock 'n' roll is no guide to modern life - Those attending a global-warming rally this week were caught up in a debate about a dead rock star's penis - 19th November Divorced, and back on the couch - The co-author of Families and How to Survive Them has embarked upon his Alimony Tour - 16th November Beware, you townies in the country - It is time for town-dwellers to be very brave - 12th November A father's fancy footwork - Barnes looked delighted by the news, but then he had looked delighted by Liverpool's lead over the champions - 9th November Aux armes across the channel - A few concerns have been raised about plans for closer co-operation between the British and French armies - 5th November Miliband's art is his own affair - Attack reduces something human and kind to an ugly indicator of class - 2nd November At last, the wind of change is blowing - There are few topics of conversation more likely to cause difficulty in liberal, urban society than that of wind energy - 29th October The emptiness of institutional caring - 26th October It's not their fault you're still a failure - A new play at the Royal Court Theatre has done something rather dashing and unusual - 22nd October And now the weather... it's turning a bit brighter - At some point it was decided that weather forecasters should be characters - 19th October Meet Mr and Mrs Average - The world may be awash with a daily torrent of surveys, graphs, league tables and flow-charts, but there are still those who believe we need more numbers to make sense of modern life - 15th October The awkward ecology around eating meat - Social Studies: Sadly for meat-lovers, the environmental case against a carnivorous diet is stronger than ever - 12th October Don't try to be funny with me - There is, I am almost sure, a funny world out there. Yet increasingly we seem to live in post-humorous society in which nothing is funny, particularly if it is meant to be funny - 8th October Me-time won't save you now - We live in an age which is so self-absorbed as to make previous generations look virtuous - 5th October How to be the perfect gentleman - These are confusing times for the English gentleman. Everything in his background has told him that manners are what help define him, but in this sharp-elbowed, aggressively egalitarian world, he has discovered that old-fashioned niceness is no longer quite enough - 1st October Must love be all around? - When Al and Tipper Gore snogged on a public platform, divorce lawyers started licking their lips - 28th September Stephen Fry and the art of inauthenticity - Clearly, the creation of a public version of the self is more than mere marketing; it is a method of survival - 25th September The danger in attacking Mr Brock - The government will quickly find itself in deep difficulty with a sentimental, animal-loving electorate - 21st September Standing up for bad language - The much-loved author Alexander McCall Smith is concerned about moral pollution - 17th September Spare a thought for Rooney - Infidelity is almost always about something more than mere randiness, especially when the offender is famous - 14th September The quiet dignity of Mr Franzen - The famous novelist is making his promotional video - 10th September Is this really a journey to fulfilment? - Gilbert has not only found wisdom but has made millions in the process - 7th September Hague has merely prolonged the agony - It has taken a non-scandal to reveal the extent to which gossip and cruelty now influence our politics - 3rd September Misplaced smugness at the BBC - Where the BBC now excels is in giving established ideas a modern spin - 31st August We need these brilliant obsessives - It is good to be reminded now and then of the true nature of the literary life - 27th August An open letter to Fifa's inspectors - English football is an extraordinary thing. Let the rest of the world enjoy it too - 24th August Hands off our public libraries - There was once a very silly government minister who floated the idea that public libraries should be privatised - 20th August Parish councils quiet revolution - Where the Big Society meets the village hall, something interesting is happening - 17th August Camping - the proper way holiday - Now that politicians vie with one another to prove the ordinariness of their lives, holidays have become competitive - 13th August It's not the players, it's their followers - As from this week, the word "shame" is likely to be appearing with increased regularity in the national newspapers - 10th August Grumpily is no way to grow old - Now and then, about once a year, the stage of public life darkens as a leading player makes his entrance - 6th August Time to herald the wisdom of chickens - Business types hunger for the code that will help them make more money - 3rd August Recession turns us into new people - Trust in the wider, official world will disappear - 23rd July The limits of modern friendship - For all the chat-rooms, emails and mobiles, people are increasingly lonely - 20th July Detritus fit for a society of hypocrites - Anyone looking for a handy metaphor for the mood of Britain in the early 21st century has only to look around - 16th July A job for the elite, not the incompetent - Should we place our children at the mercy of the bored, miserable or stupid? - 13th July Let's break Havana's hold over us - The island of Cuba is like a Rorschach test for liberal opinion - 9th July It's not unusual to act your age - Tom Jones's record company don't want want him to sing about the reality of being 70 - 6th July A prince's polite inquiries - There have been the usual mutterings from naysayers following the publication of Prince Charles's accounts - 2nd July Sons of war who were weak fathers - The only time I touched my father was holding his hand on his death-bed - 29th June We won't be nagged any more - Half-close your eyes, apply a bit of imagination, and you will see a startling resemblance between Harriet Harman, acting leader of the Labour Party, and Mary Portas, the TV bossyboots who likes to be known as "Mary Queen of Shops" - 25th June The dead are public property - The fictional version of contemporary heroes and villains tend to be an odd conflation of what he actually was and what the world which survived him wants him to be - 22nd June Unmarried couples are people too - The sickly scent of marital smugness is in the air - 18th June Women's struggle to be taken seriously - Social studies: Imagine Huw Edwards or Sir Trevor McDonald donning tight jeans and posing for his close-up - 15th June The ways to save the planet - A Jeremiah in cavalry twills, the Prince of Wales has been warning us all about the state of our souls - 11th June I blog therefore I am - I find myself writing of moments which are too trivial for my newspaper column - 8th June A challenge to notions of community - While there is more friendliness in the countryside, and more engagement, that sense of belonging can come at a price - 4th June The golden age of grumps - It is easier to sit around and complain about the world - 1st June Who is to blame for 'booze Britain'? - Normally as twinkle-toed when it comes to public relations as he is on stage, Sir Cliff Richard has tripped up a bit this week. Announcing a national tour to tie in with his 70th birthday, the Peter Pan of pop revealed at the same time that his Portuguese vineyard would be launching a brand new sparkling wine to mark this important event - 28th May Fergie is not the villain of the piece - This ordinary woman has been left to tout her semi-royalty - 25th May Nostalgia tends to conceal hypocrisy - A small lesson in the way history smooths the sharper edges and corners of the past is being played out in Cannes - 21st May Entrapment is the name of the game - What a happy day it must have been for Melissa Jacobs when a silly old fool called Lord Triesman took a shine to her - 18th May It takes one to know one far too often - In a tribute to Alan Watkins, one particular anecdote snagged in the mind - 14th May What were Julie's fans expecting? - Julie Andrews is one of those public figures who, probably through no fault of her own, has become a larger-than-life representative of a range of contemporary clichés - 11th May Could there really be life after Piers? - It is a strange, heady moment. We are at a time of change, yet no one quite knows what that change will bring - 7th May Depressing clichés sadly perpetuated - Whenever a successful woman experiences some kind of career freak-out, the great Having It All debate is re-ignited. - 4th May Censorship is now in the ascendant - As a culture, we increasingly prefer to play safe and to avoid trouble - 30th April If only the countryside could vote - Our destruction of the natural world should demand political solutions - 27th April Britain – a land fit for gamblers - Remember – it could be you - 23rd April Pause to reconsider our lives - Emitting a mighty belch, nature has grounded us - in the form of a volcano - 20th April Reasons to be grateful for the Sixties - In the context of 2010, optimism is not such a disgraceful thing - Something horrible has happened to that dapper and dignified theatre critic, Quentin Letts... - 16th April Our overpaid and overrated public servants - It is truly bizarre that as the economy spirals ever deeper into the red, one group of highly privileged men and women become increasingly wealthy from the public purse – and no one seems to give a damn - 14th April A recluse steps into the spotlight... - Charles Saatchi occupies a peculiar position in our culture - 9th April What's green about cutting recycling? - To get a sense of the real news, it is often a good idea to read local papers - 7th April The secrets in your surname - They reveal family origins, as well as insights into one's life and character - 2nd April Nobody has the right to be spared offence - The exploration of difficult subjects are becoming increasingly impossible - 31st March Space is the place for blue-sky thinking - The universe is an inclusive place, and there will be opportunities for all - 26th March A grown-up lesson on marriage - It's a good moment to receive a sharp lesson in reality from the past - 24th March The march of playground morality - Vindication of the self-righteous majority is part of everyday life - 19th March Don't drown out awkward information - Official policy statements from Whitehall tend to be bland and full of sincere-sounding generalities - 17th March Stand up for the right to cause offence - Constraint on language leads to constraint on thought - 12th March Jon Venables and a case of mob morality - The spirit of "institutionalised vengeance" lives on - 10th March The futility of chasing first-time voters - They blame, whine, and do absolutely nothing to change the situation - 5th March Factory farms, welfare and a load of bull - When farmers involved in large-scale developments protest tender concern for animal welfare, it is prudent to assume that they are up to something - 3rd March Will Martin's gang ever grow up? - What a terrible advertisement for the writing life these people are - 26th February Please stop sermonising over Ashley - It has been a hot, exciting month for those who get a thrill out of sex and punishment - 24th February You can never discount the past - 'Traditional values' are always nearby, waiting to reassert themselves -19th February 'Disorders' for the next generation - As the world gets madder, it seems only right that psychiatry is forever updating its list of hang-ups available - 17th February What children want, they must have - Misguided adults are allowing kiddie-rule to win the day - 12th February Upper-class twits whose time has gone - There is no fool quite like an English fool - 10th February A land despoiled by pylons - The reason for not putting cables out of sight is that it'd be more expensive - 5th February Fame can make a fool of anyone, Ricky - Is there any more irritating sight in contemporary Britain than the grinning features of celebrity slob Ricky Gervais? - 3rd February Pity those who get a bonus - It is the moment in the year when the great division of professional life becomes cruelly evident - 29th January A musical dynasty true to its art - Before long there will probably be a Rufus Wainwright song about his mother, the late, great Kate McGarrigle - 22nd January There is no bore quite like an eco-bore - A new, thoroughly 21st-century threat to domestic harmony is emerging - 20th January To the Lord Howe rat I take off my hat - A place on earth which proves that natural conservation requires human ruthlessness - 15th January Portrait of the playwright as a loving husband - Two of the great playwrights of their generation meet for dinner - 13th January Tales of national decline are overdone - One of the easiest ways for a British writer to gain cheap credibility with readers is to sneer at his countrymen - 8th January We men are in touch with our feelings - A few days into the new decade, it already feels as if an age of surprise and paradox is dawning - 6th January After Twitter comes Noyz and Nomebook - This time 10 years ago the internet was a bubble that was about to burst - 1st January

Articles: 2009 Why satire no longer stings the powerful - It no longer hurts because the satirised are now part of the game - 29th December Time for TV to cut down on the Yule factor - As with so much in the world of fame, the way Yule factor works is mysterious - 23rd December We must ride to the rescue of books - Publishers are gloomily discussing the latest round of closures - 18th December Governed by the ill wind of deception - There are, it seems, two categories of lying in public life - 16th December Losing faith in the story of the moral - In our nervous age, fiction is mistrusted and seems to lack relevance - 11th December In cyberspace, I can hear the addicts scream - Here is the latest news from Planet Bonkers: in order to encourage children to become involved in the 2012 Olympics, a computer simulation of running round a track is being sent to schools - 9th December What your feet say about you - At a basic, romantic level of human interaction, reading feet can be useful - 4th December Protecting a country gone to the dogs needs licences help - By now the story has become such a media archetype that it almost writes itself. There is the grim housing estate, the baby-sitting session that turns into a nightmare, the traumatised aunt or grandparent, the shocked neighbours, the remorseful parents - 2nd December Planting trees is a facile option - A sapling stuck into a pot is presented as a private little planet saver - 27th November Science must never be political or emotional - Politicians and action groups select favourable data, ignoring inconvenient evidence - 25th November A great day for famous do-gooders - For celebrities, highly visible charity activities are a good deal - 20th November Look out, the locals are revolting - Positively the last word on the strange saga of Elizabeth Truss, the Dave's Darling would-be MP for south-west Norfolk, and her run-in with the Turnip Taliban: it was not about sex or even about using Google - 18th November Do celebrities have all the answers? - A loss of faith in conventional medicine leads us to new 'gurus' - 13th November Reality TV police shows are criminal - For half an hour, the real world is presented in black-and-white terms - 10th November A guide to the new eco-religion - Once the church of Green Faith exists there will be no room for agnostics - 6th November The heroic career of an unserious man - Someone surely should commission a biopic based on the bizarre life of Gyles Brandreth - 4th November Can we talk about me now please? - Self-obsession is at the root of a change in the way we socialise - 30th October The best of British for the Olympics - Every country which has hosted the Olympics has used it for image purposes - 28th October We must fight them in the fields - We can no longer take our rural landscape for granted - 23rd October The new breed of bossy vicars - Perhaps it is time for Professor Richard Dawkins to scale down his famous campaign on behalf of godlessness - 21st October An artist who remains himself - Extraordinarily there are still those unable to see the wonder of Dylan - 16th October A rubbish way to save the planet - Somehow it seems all wrong for Hilary Benn to be chairing a rubbish summit this week - 14th October Is Britain really so unhappy? - There will be dancing in the streets of Oslo at the breaking news that Norway has topped an important UN survey - 9th October Spinning out of control in the blogosphere - It has been a grim week in that increasingly murky place - 7th October National service: just what's needed - There are skills 18-year-olds should learn. This would be their chance - 2nd October Britain's green and pleasant divided land - Because politicians only occasionally take into consideration what is happening in the British countryside, rural policies and initiatives, when they do come, often have an other-worldly, Alice in Wonderland feel to them - 30th September All this fuss over a misdirected joke - Universities should be where jokes can be made without misinterpretation - 25th September When politics takes the fun out of comedy -Conference season is here and we can expect the usual scripted political jokes among the policy statements - 23rd September Can drinking ever really be 'heroic'? - Distinctly dubious myths lie behind our admiration for celebrity boozers - 18th September Paranoia that sexualises childcare - I have a confession to make. In the past, I have had frequent, intensive contact with children - 16th September Entering the new age of personal guilt - The Canadian author Margaret Atwood, as brilliant a self-promoter in her way as Jeffrey Archer, has hit on a bright - 11th September Townies expect rural life to be an idyll - The countryside is really not a cosy 'Vicar of Dibley' kind of place - 8th September Catholics do it on a wing and a prayer - So here we are, after all those dates and dinners and nervous telephone calls. It's just us, alone together, in a romantic double room at the Novotel. And for a whole night! I have to tell you, darling, there have been times when I thought we'd never – What are you doing?" - 4th September Songwriting can boost your health - Someone should take the power and effects of the popular song seriously - 1st September Bring on the Hooligan Cup - The suggestion that fighting fans are exceptional is self-defeating - 28th August Politics has no place for these celebrities - The much-publicised campaign which encouraged members of the public to photograph MPs enjoying their holidays in some unexplained sleazy way has not been going terribly well - 25th August Why does a philosopher need to join the clamour for speed? - True wisdom comes from thought, quiet and solitude - 21st August Experts at passing the blame - Have innocent, square-jawed rugby players been corrupted? - 18th August An aversion to seriousness runs deep - Intelligent people are reducing the intellectual life of the nation - 14th August Why Britain can't shake off its snobbery - We feel more at ease with some sort of hierarchy of privilege in place - 12th August There's greatness in every generation - Those who did have to fight in wars have still displayed their own form of courage - 8th August It's all too easy to gang up on Radio 1 - Ed Vaizey, the culture spokesman of a party long on political ambition but short on policy, must have been delighted with this week's bright idea. A Conservative government, he has said, would consider forcing the BBC to sell off its Radio 1 franchise and waveband to the private sector - 5th August Marriage isn't always the ideal state - It has been an excellent summer so far for the Smug Marrieds - 31st July Matters of interest for Her Majesty - She wondered why no one could foresee this ‘awful recession’ - 28th July The mad democracy of snooping - The best way to control people, as any competent dictator will know, is to get them to police themselves - 24th July Where are the guitar riots and accordian assaults? - This Government has developed a bizarre hatred for a certain kind of live music - 21st July The new British way of mourning - A whiff of mass sentimentality adorned some of the scenes this week - 18th July Thought For The Day' has had its day - The aural symbol of national continuity has well and truly outlived its usefulness - 17th July Does sex need to be encouraged? - What was once seen as self-pollution is now presented as useful exercise - 14th July The true driving force is cash - The realities behind the energy debate - 10th July We should be proud of the Beckhams - This couple have done something old-fashioned: they have set an example - 7th July The lesson is: don't lash out at the critics - There is a new attraction at Latitude, the London Literature Festival and other hip gatherings this summer. Eminent writers from The School of Life, the social enterprise specialising in thought and ideas set up last year by the popular author and thinker Alain de Botton will be offering literary and philosophical advice on everyday problems - 3rd July But what about her second serve? - Tennis has been comprehensively hijacked by the marketing of sex - 30th june Ageism – our most popular prejudice - Two authoritative reports published this week have confirmed, in forensic detail, how one section of the British public is routinely and systematically discriminated against - 26th June So how do I ditch my old computer? - If recycling is to be effective, it needs to be made easy - 23rd June At least we've oopsification to cheer us up - For a few happy weeks, it was possible to forget how broke and scared most of us were feeling - 19th June Men are second-class citizens in health - Campaigns for breast cancer draw headlines. Male cancers do not - 16th June The problem with society is everyone else - That great and virtuous institution, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, has been studying why society is in such a mess - 12th June You can't kill off libraries and call it 'creative' - Prisoners have a statutory right to a library, but schoolchildren do not - 9th June Angry voters who back their censured MP - Here is an unusual angle on a grimly familiar story. The constituents of an MP who has been caught up in the expenses row are, in the phrase of the month, very, very angry. Their faith in politics and politicians has been shaken to the core. Yet the focus of the rage is not their MP, but the way he has been treated by his party and by the media - 5th June Should children really be gambling? - Scratchcards now feature film-star heroes like Indiana Jones - 2nd June Ms Boyle and a modern celebrity fable - The week's least surprising news is that the woman variously known as the Hairy Angel and SuBo has begun to behave oddly - 29th May Why should a boy be more like a girl? - The idea that women are more socially generous insults everybody - 26th May Believe the hype? We're hooked on it - The experts who have announced that the current crisis in our political system is the worst in living memory are already being challenged. The problem is far more serious than that - 22nd May I spy a fly-tipper. And a litter bug ... - Nothing exercises the British more than interference with their rubbish - 19th May Time to inject a bit of pizzazz into the Cabinet - A new spirit in politics is needed – one of clear-eyed courage, of iron commitment unsullied by sleaze and selfish-interest - 15th May Our freedom is being readily sacrificed - The arguments for greater regulation are increasingly worrying - 12th May TV shouldn't exist to treat us like idiots - Viewing selection is certainly a straightforward matter these days. One looks at the list of programmes on offer, and quickly reaches the conclusion that there are better things to do than sit in front of a screen, having one's intelligence insulted - 8th May Think before you share your pain - Why are two people well-versed in the media turning to strangers for help? - 5th May Was a rebel ever quite so conservative? - In two days' time, the extraordinary life and career of the daddy of all roots music will be celebrated - 1st May No lessons in fairness please, Harriet - Ms Harman's proposal is less an equality bill than a niceness bill - 28th April Keeping it real has never been so attractive - Already there is talk of a film based on the life and unlikely fame of Susan Boyle - 24th April Reggie Perrin, still a hero 30 years on - As with this great character, people are still bored and yearn for change - 21st April The politically divisive nature of diversity - That old standby of the Labour years, the anti-racism festival, is under threat - 17th April How will Sting save the planet? - The problem with ethical celebrities is more than mere humbug - 14th April Is supporting the sick a religious issue? - It has been salutary to be reminded of the role religion plays in everyday life - 10th April A St George's day festival is not very British - It is not in our nature to bellow our virtues from the rooftops - 7th April I'd save the world, but they won't let me - The face of that familiar figure, the government nanny, is changing - 3rd April We are enshrining right to be angry - There is something ugly about this surge in public virtue - 31st March Why I feel betrayed by the RSPB - It is with a real pang of sadness that I will be cancelling my direct debit - 27th March Less opinion, more debate, please - Open-mindedness has become confused with indecisiveness - 24th March Even Fred the Shred is only human - How comforting it is to be on the side of the good guys - 20th March Rural contentment without the idyll - An air of vernal chirpiness has descended on middle-class East Anglians - 17th March No winners in the race for sporting glory - Many of those who provided the nation with a spasm of pride and optimism have been feeling down recently - 13th March Nagging litter-bugs isn't the answer - It is not difficult to find symptoms in everyday life of our low self-esteem as a nation - 11th March Why do they all fawn over Saint Max? - One of the many illusions which surround Max Clifford is that he is reviled in liberal media circles. In fact, he is adored - 6th March Writers should spare their families - It's disquieting that Julie Myerson is going public about her son - 3rd March Public service comes before public grief - Have you heard the one about Joe Biden, America's new Vice-President? - 27th February We can’t ignore Cuba’s dark side - Many prefer their illusions about Castro to remain unblemished - 24th February We can tackle racism only by facing up to it - It seems that we have become so unthinkingly sensitive to matters of race that it is impossible even to touch on the subject without running the risk of giving offence - 20th February Beyond the fringe – and wholly safe - Sometimes life comes up with punchlines no satirist could compete with - 17th February Count me out of the white horse fan club - It is a wonderful joke. It is folk art, like maypoles and cheese-rolling. It is a celebration of our history - 13th February Defeatism is stalking the classroom - Our teachers' individual enterprise has been crushed - 11th February You don't have to be a twit... but it helps - It must be something of a nightmare for a well-known public figure to be trapped in a lift with five other people - 6th February The Lottery must share the blame - The mindless worship of money is cheerfully promoted - 3rd February Updike's work outsmarts his critics - John Updike once wrote that a person's collection of books comes to symbolise the contents of his mind - 30th January Live music must be allowed to thrive - The meddlesome Licensing Act dealt a grievous blow to live performance - 27th January The serious lessons in a trivial matter - What, at the end of one of the most momentous weeks in modern history, will dominate the news this weekend? - 23rd January Gender wars and unspoken words - There's a weird mindset that sees women as victims in every area - 21st January Myth and reality in the Outback - There is a different mood in Australia. Republicanism has resurfaced - 6th January

Articles: 2008 We live in a cynical age. And technology is making it worse - We have become so used to achieving far less than we once did - 30th December 2008 When the generation war turns nasty - What does OldBoresAlmanac.com predict for the coming year? - 26th December 2008 It's enough to make you believe in God - It is a difficult week for those of us of little faith - 23rd December 2008 The independent life and remarkable times of Carly Simon's King of Wales - It is unlikely that any of the obituaries of Richard Rhys, the ninth Baron Dynevor, will present him as an establishment outsider, perhaps even a victim of the class system - 19th December 2008 Ed Stourton and the new brutalism - Unkind, idiotic mindgames now surround the redundancy process - 16th December 2008 (see: Stourton 'shattered' to be told he's lost his 'Today' job - by a reporter, The Independent, 13th December 2008) Happy Christmas... - ... all major credit cards accepted - 12th December 2008 No medal without winding people up - Australia's crude encouragement of nationalist hatred is embarrassing - 9th December 2008 Football is better for being ruled by greed - Now that George Bush is pouring public money into private firms and bankers have suddenly discovered the attractions of state intervention, it is increasingly difficult to find examples of savage, unadulterated, old-fashioned capitalism - 5th December 2008 The greasy gravy train of lobbyism - The idiocy and graft at work in the system barely merits a second glance - 2nd December 2008 The Army has lost the moral high ground - Those looking for a snapshot of modern army life might consider the tale of Lance-Bombardier Kerry Fletcher - 28th November 2008 Only one person is writing this – me - The creation of a story is not a team event. The author is in charge - 25th November 2008 We are the real savages of the show - The celebrities-in-a-wood show is back on TV - 21st November 2008 Demonised - and sentimentalised - Our attitudes to children are dangerously confused - 18th November 2008 It's enough to make me cry... in private - The great blubbing debate has just moved to a new, decisive phase - 14th November 2008 Dame Joan has a battle on her hands - A British Obama might be unthinkable. But so is a British McCain - 11th November 2008 Golf madness is killing the countryside - Trumpland: what a sad, sterile, money-led vision that is - 7th November 2008 We're living in the Great Age of Panic - We need to be afraid of one thing or another in order to feel alive - 4th November 2008 Driven to despair as I wander in the seventh circle of call-centre hell - 31st October 2008 When did bullying become acceptable? - 28th October 2008 Censorship Beijing would be proud of - Predictions that those organising our Olympic adventure would learn important lessons from the way the Beijing Games were run have turned out to be alarmingly true - 24th October 2008 We're in the grip of money madness - It's as if only when considering our incipient doom do we feel fully alive - 21st October 2008 John Prescott on the class system? Psychologists please take note... - Almost every syllable he utters reveals a basic insecurity - 17th October 2008 They sell your books, your mum and dad - Madeley happened to mention that he was beaten by his father - 14th October 2008 The snobbery and yobbery of our culture - The week's sporting news has had more than its normal share of thugs and saints - 10th October 2008 A generation that won't go quietly - the post-war generation which grew up in the late 1950s and early 1960s represented a profound change of attitude. It was impatient with the past and had a heady sense of its own youthful power - 7th October 2008 Sound and fury in the wake of this financial crisis - 3rd October 2008 Why Britons love la vie en rose - 30th September 2008 A debt we still owe to Madam Cyn - I am surprised by the regularity with which Cynthia Payne returns to the headlines - 25th September 2008 Look back in anger management - 23rd September 2008 The dream of easy money for all is bust - 19th September 2008 Welcome to the age of total bunkum - according to Mr Blobby, otherwise known as Noel Edmonds, it is time to change our toxic culture, mend broken Britain and build a more caring society - 16th September 2008 How an energy company put wind in our sails - 12th September 2008 The latest form of class snobbery - The real division today is between a broad semi-elite and the rest of the population - real people, as they have come to be known - 9th September 2008 Forget fuzzy togetherness – ruthless individualism should be our legacy - In the great adventure of 2012, there can be few areas with a sharper potential for triumph or profound embarrassment than in the events where sport and art– spart, perhaps it should be called – are brought together - 5th September 2008 Speak the truth and be damned - Modern culture likes the idea of intellectual integrity, and approves of people whose pronouncements are against the grain of permissible public opinion, but only in theory - 2nd September 2008 Poor old Paxo given a stuffing - 28th August 2008 Terence Blacker: Never mind the Olympics, let's hear it for the allotment - as those figures scampered around a double-decker bus in Beijing, there was a glimpse of the image which Britain could present to the world in four years' time. After the faintly fascistic, massed-ranked displays of 2008, London will have the chance to offer their polar opposite: a glorious, shambolic individuality - 26th August 2008 Zoos show us little more than our own cruelty - 22nd August 2008 Selfishness for the greater good - the dividing line between the laudable individualism and deplorable selfishness is often virtually invisible - 19th August 2008 Do we really want to host the cut-price Olympics? - Tuesday, 12th August 2008 It's time someone came to the rescue of Melvyn Bragg - Friday, 8th August 2008 Men, victims? We're doing just fine, thanks - Tuesday, 5th August 2008 Do some work on holiday, Gordon - Thursday, 31st July 2008 Why are doctors so oddly thin-skinned? - Friday, 25th July 2008 Reasons to be cheerful about the credit crunch - The obsession with smart and cool brand names has begun to seem rather silly - Tuesday, 22nd July 2008 Business greed is the real drink problem - Friday, 18th July 2008 Now our fantasies are being policed too - We are losing sight of the difference between thought and deed, between the imagined and the real - Tuesday, 15th July 2008 We can all see you're conning us, Hazel - Friday, 11th July 2008 How we love to wallow in other people's misery - Tuesday, 8th July 2008 The agony and the ego of the eco-celeb - Friday, 4th July 2008 Why we hark back to the old certainties - Between spasms of optimism and self-belief, there have been long periods of hand-wringing - Tuesday, 1st July 2008 A teacher takes off his shirt. Cue panic - Friday, 27th June 2008 Our culture is just as censorious as it ever was - It is no longer swear-words that have the power to offend but inappropriate thoughts - Tuesday, 24th June 2008 The selective morality of our business leaders - Friday, 20th June 2008 Oh no! Yet another asinine academic theory... - It is the way they present their potboilers as if works of serious endeavour which is so creepy - Tuesday, 17th June 2008 Yes, good people do indeed have affairs - Thursday, 12th June 2008 Shouldn't local people have a say on wind farms? - The closer one looks at this project, the stranger its rationale seems - Tuesday, 10th June 2008 Why do people have to be such wusses? - Friday, 6th June 2008 The BBC has one law for the rich, one for the poor - The salaries of staff can be broadcast to the nation but 'talent costs' mustremain secret - Tuesday, 3rd June 2008 Watch out! Grumpy old folk on television - Thursday, 29th May 2008 What exactly has Cherie done wrong to be so reviled? - In the attacks on Mrs Blair we witness the acceptable face of misogyny and class snobbery - Tuesday, 27th May 2008 What's the point of a royal you can't talk to? - Friday, 23rd May 2008 Let's take a look at life in our own backyard - Fewer picture of polar bears are needed, and more of bees and dragonflies - Tuesday, 20th May 2008 Ignore the experts: here's the secret of happiness - Friday, 16th May 2008 These elderly pop stars have a right to feel miffed - The prejudice has less to do with the music than the way its performer looks, or his views - Tuesday, 13th May 2008 Government advice by text? V gd idea - Friday, 9th May 2008 The mad, mad world of the very famous - Tuesday, 6th May 2008 Exposed: the world of grubby grown-ups - Friday, 2nd May 2008 There's more to animal welfare than sentimentality - For all its generosity towards animal charities, Britain is in urgent need of education - Tuesday, 29th April 2008 Season of renewal – and renewed anxiety - Friday, 25th April 2008 Don't be glum! Here are ten reasons to be cheerful - Wednesday, 23rd April 2008 Weren't computers meant to liberate us? - Friday, 18th April 2008 Winners don't always play by the rules - Friday, 11th April 2008 The whiff of defeatism in the face of an old enemy - Wednesday, 9th April 2008 When truth and its showbiz cousin collide - Friday, 4th April 2008 A stunt that exposes the truth about corporate greed - When any large company bleats about the environment, it is almost always a fug of hot air - Tuesday, 1st April 2008 Is it so terrible that marriage is in decline? - Friday, 28th March 2008 Why can't we let off steam on the pitch? - Wednesday, 26th March 2008 When refusing to repent is considered suspect - Friday, 21st March 2008 Yawn! Another tale of the tragic funny man - Wednesday, 19th March 2008 Forget fame – just aim for a gig on Cromer Pier - Friday, 14th March 2008 I'd swap French pride for British cynicism - Wednesday, 12th March 2008 Novelists have responsibility as well as power - Friday, 7th March 2008 Rural dwellers are the victims of betrayal - Wednesday, 5th March 2008 It no longer pays to be a loyal customer - Friday, 29th February 2008 Why are we obsessed with taking offence? - Tuesday, 26th February 2008 We need to savour our bacon – and here's how - Friday, 22nd February 2008 When pubs die, we are all the poorer - Wednesday, 20th February 2008 It's embarrassing, but I'll miss George Bush - Friday, 15th February 2008 Not all drug habits are so easily forgiven - Wednesday, 13th February 2008 Exclusive: secrets of the stars' Valentine cards revealed - Friday, 8th February 2008 A religious festival in serious need of rebranding - Today's Celebrity Thought for the Day comes from Sir Richard Branson... - Thursday, 7th February 2008 A frightfully difficult assignment for a young prince - Wednesday, 6th February 2008 The untold story of an enduring icon of rock - The suburban lad dreaming of stardom is given a present that will change his life forever – a comb - Tuesday, 5th February 2008 All the news that's fit to leave in a dentist's waiting room - When the allegedly more serious press picks up these stories, it does so with tongs, in sniffy inverted commas - Monday, 4th February 2008 It was tough when Miles called me off the subs' bench - Friday, 1st February 2008 Where family's concerned, if you've got it, flaunt it - Thursday, 31st January 2008 The most fun you can have with your boots on - Wednesday, 30th January 2008 Ken's thoughts on alcohol? I'll drink to that... - It is absolutely pointless being censorious about this national affection for celebrity boozers - Saturday, 26th January 2008 Remember, TV and film start with writers - Wednesday, 23rd January 2008 Silly skirmishes in the ancient battle of the sexes - Friday, 18th January 2008 Don't blame cynicism, blame a slide in ethics - Wednesday, 16th January 2008 The appalling shambles of our arts policy - Friday, 11th January 2008 We just can't face up to our Englishness - Wednesday, 9th January 2008 Nimbyism should be applauded, not despised - Friday, 4th January 2008 Missed out on TV fame? Don't despair - Wednesday, 2nd January 2008

News & updates:

References:

Links: Wikipedia bio The Peerage.com Terence Blacker