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Nelson Mandela: a Personal Memoir

A few years ago I was invited to the press night of a South African musical. An acquaintance behind me who was the London PR agent of Charlton Heston asked me what I was doing there. Riled by this I said it was at the personal invitation of Nelson Mandela. This was a total fabrication. Mandela [...]

December 6, 2013 // 0 Comments

The benefits of proceeding with caution

I think it was Rupert Murdoch who likened his dealings with Tony Blair to the approach of two porcupines towards making love (‘very carefully’) – and this was before the recent media speculation about rumours of ‘closeness’ between his ex-wife Wendy and Mr Blair. [...]

December 5, 2013 // 0 Comments

Klammer’s 1976 Winter Olympics Innsbruck downhill run

Yesterday, in my post Time waits for no man, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, I made mention of legendary Austrian skier Franz Klammer’s epic downhill run to win Olympic Gold in 1976. Today I think it is entirely appropriate to celebrate that extraordinary sporting moment. For anyone [...]

December 4, 2013 // 0 Comments

Time waits for no man

Once you sail past a certain age, gentle and not-so-gentle reminders of mortality seem to come at you with increasing frequency. I think it was Mark Twain who said his normal practice was to wait in bed his daily newspaper arrived each morning, whereupon he’d flick to the obituary column and – [...]

December 3, 2013 // 0 Comments

Copyright wrangle leaves comedian on top

Spotted on the website of The Independent this weekend, the story of a stand-up comedian who turned the tables on clothing label FCUK – see here – GRIFFITHS VICTORY [...]

December 1, 2013 // 0 Comments

… And The The Rest

Neil McCormick selects Bob Dylan’s thirty greatest songs in the Daily Telegraph today – see here – BOB DYLAN’S GREATEST Do you agree with his [...]

November 19, 2013 // 0 Comments

Diplomatic advice

When I emerged from sleep this morning, as ever to the sounds of Dotun Adebayo’s Up All Night on Radio Five Live, one of the first items I heard was a report on the latest from the Commonwealth Conference taking place in Sri Lanka. The headline was that presiding Sri Lankan president Mahinda [...]

November 17, 2013 // 0 Comments

22nd November 1963

A week away from the fiftieth anniversary of the violent end of US President John F. Kennedy’s life in Dallas, we are currently in the middle of a snowstorm of media pieces commemorating the event – and indeed reheated airings of the various conspiracy theories that first began circulating [...]

November 16, 2013 // 0 Comments

REMEMBRANCE DAY

If you asked me how many people from the UK died during World War Two I would have guessed it was 2 million. So I was surprised to learn that of the 55 million that perished in the conflict the number of Britons was 480,000. This does not compare with the  Soviet Union that lost 20m or Japan  2 [...]

November 10, 2013 // 1 Comment

SOME YOU WIN, SOME YOU LOSE

Even if you hold to the view that politicians – like snake oil salesmen – should be mistrusted on sight, it is an inescapable fact that some of them possess an affable charisma which prompts the public to respond favourably. Forget the policies, it’s all to do with how they come across. [...]

November 6, 2013 // 0 Comments

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