It’s back to Amy land for me this weekend, when I start updating her story for the paperback edition of my biography, out next March.
Be active. If you like this post, please click below to show your support.Archive for November, 2008
Congratulations to Sam Jordison, fantastic author and friend of this blog, for the news that his Crap Towns book has been voted in the Top 20 Funniest British Books Of All Time.
This is Sam’s moment, so it would be both inappropriate and desperate of me to mention that I wrote a section (Hythe) of Crap Towns and another (Windsor) for its sequel.
Well done, Sam.
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I love Mark Steyn. His book America Alone is a joyous juggernaut of a read and very much influenced Julie and I when we co-wrote Not In My Name.
Be active. If you like this post, please click below to show your support.Mark’s website Steyn Online is six years old today. Here’s to Mark and his team!
The aforementioned Alastair Campbell evening was brilliant. Thank heavens, there was no sign of his previous theatrical sidekick Ross Kemp. Instead Campbell had the lovely Fiona Phillips alongside him. She was great fun.
It was like watching GMTV, but live, in a theatre, in the evening, with a large glass of wine in my hand. Living the dream or what? I think Fiona Phillips should front a live GMTV theatre tour.
Fantasy guest: Heather Mills.
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I am beyond chuffed for him!
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I was glad to see Rachel Hylton leave the X Factor on Saturday. She’d started to become a real bore and she didn’t even seem to want to be there.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been more of a fuss about her murky past. I didn’t like Daniel Evans but the abuse the poor guy got for the ‘crime’ of mourning his wife was astonishing. Particularly compared to the absolute lack of abuse that Hylton got for her genuine crimes.
So let’s get this straight, X Factor fans. Mourning your wife = we hate you, you’re evil! Mugging a pensioner = well, we mustn’t judge!
Looking forward to Saturday.
Be active. If you like this post, please click below to show your support.It was a tragedy that John Charles de Menezes was killed. The police made cock-ups galore that day, and an innocent man was killed. None of that is in dispute.
But honestly, when will people stop banging on about de Menezes, as this self-indulgent ‘artist’ is? Surely it’s time to let the matter, and de Menezes himself, rest?
The police who made that horrible mistake were bravely trying to protect us from homicidal Islamists who want us all to convert or die. Oh that any of those who still harp on about de Menezes should ever be faced with such an astonishing level of responsibility and danger in their own jobs.
Guys, you never stop talking about John Charles de Menezes. But how many of you can name a single one of the 52 people who were murdered by Islamists on July 7?
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Sod That! is available from all good bookstores!
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I had to laugh when I saw that Alastair Campbell’s novel is shortlisted for the Literary Review’s Bad Sex Award. Normally I would run a mile from a novel about mental health problems (yaaaawn!) but as I’m a bit of a Campbell fan, I bought it a few weeks back.
I’ve even read some of it too, and as far as a novel about mental health problems that is endorsed by the vile Stephen Fry can be any good, it is good. It is funny in parts and moving in others. I haven’t finished it (I can only take so much talk about depression) so I’ve not read many sex scenes bad or otherwise as yet.
I’m going to see Campbell do a talk at the South Bank next week. Last time I saw him speak there, some mad anti-war protestor (is there any other kind?) started ranting at him about Iraq and had to be led out. I think Ross Kemp – who I dislike and can’t work out why – was also there, as some sort of inadequate compere. I wonder what delights await us this time!
One day, I’ll have to find a way to publish some of the personal stuff that the lawyers cut from Not In My Name. Starting with the-man-that-stupid-people-think-is-clever himself, the vile Stephen Fry.
Meantime, Craig Purshouse is rather eloquent on Fry.
Be active. If you like this post, please click below to show your support.It makes me starving just looking at the photos.
Be active. If you like this post, please click below to show your support.So, a rapper called Trick Trick – a hilariously undignified name, even by the pantomime standards of hip hop – has banned gay people from buying his new album, called – wait for it – The Villain.
As I wrote in Not In My Name, I’ve never liked hip hop because “the moment I spotted all that rampant misogyny, homophobia and anti-Semitism dragging its knuckles over the hill, I decided my CD collection could get by without it”. So I’m not exactly shedding tears over not being able to buy this silly man’s album.
I do, though, look forward to the next time that I hear a white, liberal hip-hop fan pretending that they don’t know that hip hop is riddled with homophobia, and further pretending that they don’t secretly get-off on it.
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Help! I’m Turning Into My Dad! is available from all good bookstores!
Be active. If you like this post, please click below to show your support.I’ve been invited back on BBC Radio Berkshire with Henry Kelly today, following my enjoyable spot their in September.
I used to bunk off college to watch Henry’s brilliant Going For Gold, so it’s great to get the chance to be alongside him in the studio.
There is a great profile of Tottenham’s David Bentley in today’s Independent. Bentley has been widely criticised for being arrogant, and his ‘I feel like Superman’ statement after the recent North London derby did nothing to take the heat off him. But as Steve Tongue says in the article there are precious few characters left in the Premiership and we need more, not less, David Bentleys.
When I was editor of icons.com, I got to know Bentley very well, as we ran his official website. He was 17 at the time, and I had no doubt at all that he’d become a big-name player, and a controversial one at that. So bursting with confidence and ambition was he that being in his presence could be amusing, exhausting and inspiring all at once.
As his profile has risen, many have interpreted his confidence and ambition as arrogance. Me? I think he’s an absolute superstar and I wish him – though not his team – the very best. I’ve long thought that there’s something peculiarly and brilliantly American about David Bentley. All his ambition, enthusiasm and showing-off would be cheered to the hilt in the States.
Here in envious England, most people are less keen on all that and prefer to boo him than cheer him. I’d be amazed if Bentley loses a moment’s sleep about that. Good luck to him.