Till the Cows Come Home

There hasn't been a review of a book appear round these parts in quite a while.  It's not been for the want of investing energy in attacking the pile of 'must read' books by the side of my bed - hopefully I will get around to reviewing them soon.  But as soon as I had …

Late Junction – we must not lose this connection

Radio is my best friend.  I know it is the same for many people. BBC Radio is a particular treasure.  Having worked as a press officer in BBC Radio back in the mists of time, I know all too well of the public service mission that the various stations have a duty to deliver, as …

Real Bread – is flour, water and salt really poetry, science, history – or politics?

To mark the start of "Real Bread Week" (23rd Feb - 3rd Mar 2019),  I did everything in my power to pass on the 'sourdough bug' to my 10 year old niece Olivia. I'm not sure whether sourdough baking is more poetry or science - looking after the starter culture; autolysing the dough; the rhythms …

Better connectivity could mean trams and light rail

In the summer of 2018, I got volunteered together with other local residents in helping to create a neighbourhood plan for our local area - Yateley, Darby Green and Frogmore, in Hampshire. My specific area of interest is 'Getting Around', whether that is transport in all its shapes and sizes, or provision for those of …

Best of 2018

As ever, it has been a tough call pulling together my top tracks of the year, but in what has been a difficult year due to deaths in the family, and against the backdrop of stagnant cesspit of national politics, it has been a usefully therapeutic exercise. I've included links to videos of my twelve …

Making connections

A recent independent inquiry - Civil Society Futures - published its report in the middle of November, called "The Story of Our Times: shifting power, bridging divides, transforming society," which said that civil society must up its game, or risk complete irrelevance. I usually abhor acronyms, but it came up with one - PACT - to …

Campaign: Keeping the Sainsbury’s bus

I wanted to document what we have done so far to successfully campaign to maintain an important community resource. Having been a public relations practitioner, I felt it important to reflect on the steps we had taken. Taking a wider view, I was just so thoroughly depressed on what was happening on the Westminster stage …

Psychogeography is killer!

Psychogeography has been emerging as a dimension in my life for a good few years - a way of navigating and making sense of my own personal space, and a paradigm worthy of use interrogating professional, social and cultural evidence and ideas in research. I make these claims (I'd previously even started to try to …

Resist!

Over the last few months, I’ve had cause to concentrate my focus on the theory and practice of turning protest into power, to an extent that I probably haven’t done since the mid-90s. The campaigns-related side of public relations, and best ways of developing effective strategies are obviously things which have dominated my time as …

The Perfumier and the Stinkhorn

My desire to sniff out 'the particular' drew me towards reading "The Perfumier and the Stinkhorn" by Richard Mabey (2011) [London: Profile Books].  It had long been on my 'books to read' list after I had discovered one of his previous books, 'Dreams of the Good Life' about Flora Thompson - the author behind 'Lark …