The Plashing Vole

Only one book in the post today - Jean Mitchell's Storm and Dissonance: L. M. Montgomery and Conflict , bringing my spend on Anne of Gre...

If anyone reads the Daily Star other than David Cameron (who claimed it was his favourite), you'd be forgiven for assuming that a plan...

I read a glorious, pointless book yesterday. It's Bad Vibes , by Luke Haines - his account/autobiography of the Britpop years. Haines wa...

Last Saturday was Independent Record Shop day, on which we were meant to give our money to small capitalists rather than big ones. Actuall...

During an election period, it's important to remember the delicate relationship between government and the supposedly proud and independ...

While I think about it, I want to plug Phantom Gorilla's BBC Radio Widget. If you own a Mac, it's a dashboard mini-application which...

I don't know much about Balloon , and their album Gravity : they're pretty much invisible and forgotten, which is a shame. Cynical B...

Adam sent me this: a taste of what new media can do to literature. This almost makes an iPad worth buying…

4 books today: Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (about why women are now claiming that pole-da...

Labour has been the worst government in living memory for civil rights - and I say that as a party member. Their trick is to trumpet their i...

Today's music is a collection of Byzantine hymns and music from Vespers, the evening prayers, by the Balamand Monastery. Yes, I'm an...

David Cameron's leadership debate depended on 'anecdotes' which turned out to be untrue (such as the 40-year old man who'd b...

Did you all watch Doctor Who on Saturday ? I was stunned: the new direction is scary but full of comic turns: it is, after all, for kids. W...

…is the campaign slogan of David Cameron (Eton, Oxford, Bullingdon, £30m fortune, expenses cheat) and Gideon George Osborne (St. Paul's,...

I missed one of the political highlights of the year: David Cameron visiting my local Asda store (he only visits businesses which have given...

There's been a lot of talk recently about Lionel Messi recently. Is he the greatest footballer on earth? Despite being called Lionel? ...

Have a good weekend everybody. Try not to inhale too much volcanic ash. I intend to read my extensive collection of cataclysm literature (us...

Oh look, today's music is Bach. I'll do you a favour and pass over everything this composer wrote in one day's entry (although D...

You write the story, then wait for the events to happen. As this Guardian story shows, the newspapers' judgement on the leadership de...

Morning comrades. Or afternoon. Whatever. The big debate here, or what would be the big debate had I seen or spoken to anyone so far this ...