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All Quiet on the Western Front

Although All Quiet on the Western Front hoovered up the BAFTA awards I was a tad disappointed. It’s a German film so it was good that foreign films are recognised. The story is of German school friends who, persuaded by the xenophobic rhetoric of their headmaster, became conscripts in the [...]

February 21, 2023 // 0 Comments

Revival of Bill Naughton’s Spring and Port Wine

For personal reasons which I will divulge later I was so delighted to hear that Bill Naughton’s Spring and Port Wine is to be revived at the Octagon Theatre Bolton. Bill Naughton was of poor Irish stock in County Mayo and moved to Bolton where he bagged and delivered coal. His breakthrough as a [...]

February 11, 2023 // 0 Comments

Sideways/Radio 4

Yesterday Matthew Syed presented a programme on the chess player Jonathan Nunn. He was something of a prodigy as a mathematician – he was the youngest person to gain admission to Oxford since Cardinal Wolsey. He switched to chess and, although excellent, he was never world grandmaster class. [...]

February 9, 2023 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard: a Spanish Day in London

Yesterday I went with Alice Mansfield to the Royal Academy to see the Spain and Hispanic World collection of Archer M Huntington, the son of a railroad magnate and avid collector around the turn of the twentieth century of Spanish paintings and artefacts. Alice considered Spanish art underrated [...]

February 6, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report

Yesterday a Fulham supporter whom I have known for many years – and began his support a year after me – treated me to lunch at the Reform Club. I am not a gentleman’s club man, but even so was impressed by its portals, salons and traditions. It was founded after The Great Reform Act [...]

January 31, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Other Side of the Hill

The title of the book is taken from the Duke of Wellington who always stressed the importance of knowing what your enemy is up to. The writer is the distinguished military historian and strategist Basil Liddell Hart, who advocated fast-moving armoured divisions striking quickly and deeply into the [...]

January 28, 2023 // 0 Comments

Fauda/4th series

My partner Joanna aptly calls is “Foul Up” as the Elite Israeli defence unit headed up by Dorian – once the bodyguard of Arnold Schwarzenegger – goes into its fourth series. They always seem to mess up. Audacity meets chaos (the actual translation of Fauda) which makes for good [...]

January 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

Gina Lollobrigida R.I.P

I was saddened to learn of the passing of La Lollo. Of the big three Italian post war stars – Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale and Gina Lollobrigida – she was my favourite. Sophia Loren, guided by her husband Carlo Ponte, had the bigger Hollywood career, Claudia Cardinale was the more [...]

January 18, 2023 // 0 Comments

Brighton 3 Liverpool 0

After this resounding win over Liverpool the story – like Fulham’s – will be focussed on the demise of the Reds and the future of Jurgen Klopp which is unfair as the Seagulls played so well. From the start they took the game to Liverpool, pinning them down in their half. However [...]

January 15, 2023 // 0 Comments

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