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Rick Wakeman – still an outstanding musician and good bloke

Keyboard player Rick Wakeman occupies an enviable niche in the pantheon of British rock music. I’d hate to saddle him with ‘national treasure’ status but – despite his well-documented professional and personal excesses – he attracts a grudging respect even in those like me who [...]

January 9, 2014 // 0 Comments

Not waving, but drowning

I hold to the view that one of the markers of advancing age is a gradual but inevitable disconnect from advances in modern technology. We grow up gleefully embracing them until we reach adulthood – enjoy a period of ten to fifteen years when we are pretty much ‘up to date’ – and then [...]

January 7, 2014 // 0 Comments

Sometimes you couldn’t make it up

Apparently, some 1,058 people – including 40 Brits – have made a shortlist of candidates for a one-way mission to Mars in 2025 being organised by as Dutch organisation called Mars One. It seems that final selections will be the subject of as reality television show process – see [...]

January 3, 2014 // 0 Comments

Going through the tube

Earlier today I travelled to an off-shoot of the NHS in order to have an MRI scan on my right hip/thigh, this resulting from an injury I suffered on a golf course. After the round concerned, I arrived home having ‘stiffened up’ and beset by various aches and pains, all anticipated and perfectly [...]

January 2, 2014 // 0 Comments

John Fortune – a talented and amusing satirist

Sad news this week that satirist John Fortune – frequent collaborator with John Bird – died over the festive period at the age of 74. For me, obituaries are a bitter-sweet opportunity to review the life and influence of a person even though – in far too many cases – by the [...]

January 2, 2014 // 0 Comments

Happy New Year from Robert Tickler

We had a traditional Hogmanay in the wild highlands.  I invited my ghillie, gamekeeper, cook and estate staff for a dram at 6. We served dinner at 8 with some local worthies and then danced reels in a ceilidh and played charades at which my little poppet Lanna from Oban was proficient. Tomorrow we [...]

January 1, 2014 // 0 Comments

Oh yes we are!

Any Neaderthal males who doubt the validity of female sport on the grounds of lack of competitive spirit or testosterone-fuelled desire to come out on top should get their heads examined. Women are far the far more competitive sex, especially when it comes to other women. Having spent a lifetime in [...]

December 31, 2013 // 0 Comments

Gary Barlow: Journey to Afghanistan (ITV 23rd December)

You haven’t asked me, but if you did, I would probably classify myself as coming from the traditional, reserved, stiff upper lip-style school of Englishman. Not quite incapable of emotion or sentiment but, being possessed of huge stocks of control, the sort of chap who would not easily share his [...]

December 25, 2013 // 0 Comments

As the eleventh hour approaches

Monday 23rd December, 1255 hours: Chaos, a state with which the Stuarts are not unfamiliar, has now taken up full-blown residence as we enter Christmas week. So has my son Barry. I’m not implying that those two statements are necessarily connected, but you can draw your own conclusions, as I do [...]

December 23, 2013 // 0 Comments

Board game shock

Spotted today on the website of The Independent, a piece on the allegation that one of the rising stars of chess may have been cheating. I suppose that after the advent of chess-playing computers – and now expert chess-playing apps for smart-phones – suspicions relating to top players [...]

December 23, 2013 // 0 Comments

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