I recall being tipsily slumped on my sofa on a wet winter night in January this year. I was trying to entertain myself by reading a vintage book on British hauntings and mysterious places. Sutton Hoo came up again and again and as I had already heard of the strange circumstances surrounding  its discovery, I [...]

I have just seen the new short film that Nick Livesy has produced for well-groomed cycling barons, Rapha. The film is an evocative but gritty take on the personal sacrifices of Johan Museeuw, twists, turns and history of one of the cycling calendar’s toughest races, the Paris Roubaix. Ridley Scott Associates have clearly had a [...]

Sunday was occupied by a trip to Greenham Common with some friends. It was close with a typically warm August sun poking between the  tumbling clouds. A menagerie of Crickets, insects and floating seeds made the thick air vibrate and  even though the sounds of light aircraft and grazing cattle mingled with all this, it [...]

I have no shame in admitting that I’m English (I can see my Scottish mates rolling their eyes right now when I say that… heh heh). Although, I have to say that my personal hierarchy of loyalty goes in the following order: I’m a Yorkshireman first, then I’m British and English last. But why English [...]

The BBC have just launched their new (and improved, but not yet perfect) news site. I thought I would pick out a feature that caught my eye as an excuse to test it out. The other day, the MOD announced their new impressive looking Taranis UCAV.  Seemingly capable of mashing up a small village without the [...]

When the air temperature has warmed and the fields are growing rare in colour, a very fantastic sporting event takes place once a year. The Tour de France (Le Tour) has been the cornerstone of spectator sport for me since I was young enough to leave the stabilisers in the garage. As a keen (casual) [...]

Last week a colleague placed a stack of old journals and design magazines outside his office for anyone to take if they so wished. As usual, I was late to the feast and discovered only a cursory stack of heavily thumbed, two year-old Architect’s Journals remaining. A good read, but not for my already burdened [...]

Summer holidays were once about a genuine and sincere lack of responsibility. Most of them were spent pootling around on my bike through the spicey-scented English countryside. Occasionally I shifted the indoor/outdoor ratio around quite significantly. This involved the ritualistic drawing of the curtains during the day in favour of being able to see the [...]