Six months to the day after we moved to Liverpool and my first review for the brilliant Bido Lito! was published. It was a fitting flourish to celebrate our happy milestone.
Learning more about the eating disorders Scarlett Thomas raised in her novel, I was struck by ‘orthorexia’ and how the echoes of this fear-focused disorder reverberated around recent approaches to food and diet.
Having switched up my new year reading list order, I took up Scarlett Thomas’s Oligarchy. Unfortunately, the thin book revealed a thin plot and the real issue at the heart of it all was harpooned and left to waste away.
I am feeling angry and aggrieved in a way that I haven’t for a long time. In the history of our civilised evolution there have been leaps forward and stumbles back, and our current time feels like a whip-lash inducing move into reverse.
2020 resolution number one: TICK. Vegetarian January is complete. But how did it go? What did I discover? And what happened on February 1st?
Celebrating Chinese New Year in my new city got me to thinking. When you’re in a rut and trying to find your sense of self it’s important to remember: expectations kill, curiosity creates.
Food has become more than mere sustenance for me. As I dip my toe in the culinary delights that Liverpool has to offer, I am encouraged to swim deeper into the currents of home-cooked recipes and to see if I can replicate such wonders at home.
Taking a step back in time to an October morning when a visit to the Mersey became a journey into art, history and a city of great significance.
Thanks to a bumper Christmas crop and a handy half-price sale, I know exactly how my 2020 reading list is going to kick off. And I’m extremely excited about each and every one.
It’s New Year’s Eve 2019. I’m revving up the resolutions engine and letting 2020 be led by the heart. And in the process hoping I know what all that really means.
Understanding art as a way to accurately communicate something that would otherwise remain locked in your mind. The filter is what colours experiences as your own, not what stops you communicating it to others.
Getting excited is fun. Sharing that excitement extends the joy. Why does there need to be any more reason to write?
Live review of the intoxicating Warpaint, performing at Oxford's O2 Academy.
Review of Goldfrapp's live performance at Oxford's O2 Academy.
Read my review of Mark Thomas' latest show, The Red Shed, performed at Oxford's North Wall arts' centre.
Review of Stewart Lee's full-length stand-up show, Content Provider, which first appeared on the Daily Info.
January is a time for trying new things and learning important lessons. Unfortunately some lessons are a little harder learned than others.
Check out my live review of the Margo Price Band, which first appeared on Daily Info.
Everyone should read 'The War on Women' because such accounts of real, everyday suffering, abuse and oppression teach us just how real and how systemic this war is.
From the sublime to the ridiculous - or rather the dumb - here are five things that I just happened to learn this week.
To do just the one thing is such an obvious piece of wisdom, but it is often forgotten. Upon finishing 'Stoner: A Novel', it seemed pertinent that writing this post be the one thing I do.
This weekend, thanks to a bit of baking, I realised there's a subtle difference between getting better at what you enjoy and working to improve what you do every day.
My week has not been without words: they were just published over on Daily Info because I went and watched a bunch of music and reviewed it.
Let's all join the analogue revolution and stop the slow digital creep that's reaching into our minds and breaking our spirits.
2015 is the year of adventure because I looked back at 2014 and searched for the best moment I could think of. The answer was obvious: Bestival.
My review of Jonathan Lethem's 'The Ecstasy of Influence' may have been quite little, but the thoughts it sparked were a quite big. So hop on board this train of thought about influence and intimidation.
Finally I can offer a little review of Jonathan Lethem's 'The Ecstasy of Influence' because I have at long last finished it. It only took me two and a half years.
Welcome, one and all, to 2015. It's the year of adventure and I am back (with gay abandon) to typing in my notebook.
When a production of Macbeth not only manages to make you jump, but also creeps the bejesus out of you, then you know it's getting something right. This is a review of Creation Theatre's Macbeth.
Turns out, that ‘jangle’ I can hear is the sound of screeching tyres as they start to straighten and pick up traction post turning that metaphorical corner.