The Plashing Vole

The New York Times   isn't impressed with David Cameron's adoption of Mubarak techniques for dealing with urban disorder: Mr. Cam...

As you can see from this site , only fruity teenage girls pass A-levels. Or is it just that the entire news media only print pictures of fru...

Having just expounded at length on academic understanding of reading, I should say what I've been reading recently. I have a lot of bo...

OK, that's Louisa M. Alcott, being witty in the days when novel reading was seen as a dangerous, self-indulgent pursuit for idle women (...

Results tomorrow (and Leaving Cert if you're in Ireland). I can't say I remember much about that day, other than the overwhelming se...

My young cousin has been asked to do a school English project on the transition from adolescence to adulthood (actually, I thought adolescen...

Jonathan Meades knows what causes riots: bad architecture and the bad faith which causes it. Here's part 1 of his 2007 'On the Brand...

One of the scariest songs ever written is Tom Waits' bleak 'God's Away On Business'. Seeing the Sesame Streets puppets sing...

… The Hegemon, for its honorary degree policy. We've just given an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration to Tony Collins – Hono...

Andrew Maxwell, who is a comedian, knows why we're in a mess. He's a comedian, which suggests that the days of the fool speaking tru...

A few shots I took from the overnight ferry. What a way to travel. No humiliating searches, cramped conditions, being treated like cattle. I...

Final few favourite photographs (how's that for consonance?) from Puck 2011: rest here . Watching Dr. Fox's Old-Timey String Band ...

Some shots from Bird's, the funfair that accompanies Puck Fair in Killorglin, Ireland. I love neon and fairgrounds are wonderful - edgy,...

Some more of my favourites from Puck Fair 2011. More here or click these to enlarge. One of my very favourite photos. The Traveller gir...

Lots of photographs from Puck Fair 2011 here . Some more samples from the horse fair - click for larger versions. Daddy, I Want A Pony!...

I took quite a few pictures whilst I was in Ireland: moody beach shots , rain, horses and mad old hippies. For the full set of Puck Fair pho...