Ta. Just put it in the corner over there with the other ones. I’ll take them all to the chazzer once they’re open again. No, thanks, really. Sorry.

‘They’re real monks, with a genuine love of disco’.

Ripping Yarns.

If one of us gets really angry – not with each other – and starts crashing and thumping around, the kindest thing to say is ‘I know how you feel, Gordon’, delivered in as disinterested a manner as […]

“Michael Bolton’s growing his hair again!”

“That sort of parsley garnish went out with the Bee Gees’

“I’ve come from Urmston”

And of course the word “minellium”

Very interesting. Here’s the lyrics and their sources in full:

I think that ‘Dinnerladies’ is my favourite comedy series, along with Blackadder IV. The way Dinnerladies hangs together, one liners don’t seem to fall out of it like Blackadder’s do.

‘Why not Scottish Country […]

Those countries that have contained the virus have also been best at keeping business going. Imposing quarantine on incomers, test, tracing and isolating cases and contacts, masks, social distancing and washing […]

I can’t see a cup-a-soup packet without thinking of Bob Mortimers Dave Hill at Home with Slade

I found the name of that Bookshop Band song in this article, Gatz:

Once upon a time.

And here’s the song. What an ingenious idea!

A year or two ago I saw The Bookshop Band as opening act for The Unthanks. I found them a bit precious and twee, but the highlight was a song with a lyric made up from famous first lines of books. The only […]

Thanks @mikethep! I’m no relation, but Gerald’s books and work had such an influence on me as a young lad that I felt compelled to keep his name alive in our own family.

I came across this wonderful 1975 […]

It’s only four letters! Ya lazy feck.

3 here in South Staffs, the Field of Lich. On a weeks R’n’R ahead of going back to the coal face, the main interest being the sad tale of a friend of the wife, who died. Cancer, not Covid. Her widower needed che […]

Too long; didn’t read.

“More tea, Vicar?”

I suspect that many of you know this gambit, used by a genteel hostess, for example, to distract attention from the fact that someone has just farted. But where did it originate […]

We’re talking apples and oranges here, aren’t we? Wasn’t saying it was the best opening sentence ever, just that it draws you in and makes you want to read on.

“It was the day my grandmother exploded” – The Crow Road, Iain Banks

You’re a Durrell? Cool.
I guess the most approachable of his books are the Corfu ones – Bitter Lemons, Prospero’s Cell. The only fiction I’ve read is The Alexandria Quartet – Justine, Balthazar etc – which I […]

Prove it.