We have become an Author!

 

11st 10 (creative anxiety has eliminated most of my body fat); cigarettes 4 (writer's necessity); alcohol units 0 (no nutritional benefits whatsoever); coffee 12 (intravenous, much needed for old age); Vitamins 16 (need to score Glucosamine).

The Normality of Gun Ownership

Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes

Americans love guns. There are an estimated 270 million firearms in American private ownership, nearly as many firearms as human beings.   One day quite soon the guns will outnumber the people. That scares me, but I am English. Now that I live in America I am starting to understand why I should be scared. Or, as it happens, not.

Guns are in my DNA

Advertizing my Second Amendment right

A is for ArmaLite, B is for Browning, C is for Colt, D is for Derringer, E is for Enfield, F is for Firearms and G is for Gun. Growing up in England, that’s how I learned my ABC’s. This is because I am an American through my Father, and guns are in my DNA.  

Cruising for a vintage fix of Brit telly on YouTube

 

BBC Broadcasting House 1932

 

The BBC is a trusted brand. It is known the world over in ways that Netflix isn’t, and never could be.  It has a vast, seemingly infinite archive. Soaps. Dramas. Plays. Thrillers. Comedy shows. Documentary series. All of it high quality stuff rusting in old cans of film, gathering dust in crates and boxes of videotape. 

Balalaikas in Notting Hill

The Historical Monument of the American Republic by Erastus Salisbury Field (1888)

America is the Republic of my imagination but England is my home.  And a pot of lamspang souchoung and slice of Dundee cake was much needed after a twelve month stretch in Atlanta, "the city too busy to hate".

Trapped in Toronto by the Polar Vortex!

The Male Trailing Spouse has just returned from a 48 hour nightmare trek like no other.  It all began in the wee hours of January 5th, when I lobbed the Christmas tree out of the shuttered windows of Mum's flat on Notting Hill Gate, and fled the scene of my crime for Heathrow Airport and Atlanta via Toronto. 

"Never ask a Producer for Money"

 

"Never ask a producer for money," said the familiar voice, crackling down the line from London, "ask them for advice instead and then they will give you the money!"