THE death this week of Australian writer Richard Neville will sadden pre-Boomers and older Baby Boomers around the world. As founder of the satirical magazine Oz and later London Oz, Neville and his co-editors were the forerunners of the Baby Boomer anti-Establishment revolution which spawned Beyond The Fringe, That Was The Week That Was, the…
FORMER England cricket captain Michael Atherton once famously described the game of cricket as “a game of skill and gentlemanly conduct where everyone hates the Australians equally”. The next Ashes series between England and Australia starts towards the end of 2017 but already the MCC lawmakers at the home of cricket at Lords are looking…
I WENT this week to see for the first time The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the cult movie which last year celebrated its 40th anniversary. How did I miss it before? This week’s outdoor screening was made even more memorable by sharing the experience with my friend Jim who was seeing it for the…
I HAVE just told my grandson – he’s aged 5 – that he should be a publican when he grows up. Now you might think this is self-interest, that I might hope to get the odd free drink when I’m visiting. But in fact, I’m making the suggestion in his own best interest. Turns out…
MY FIRST memory of watching TV was as a 9-year-old boy in June 1953. Along with 27 million other people in Britain, the family and many of our neighbours were watching the coronation of Elizabeth II on a small black and white screen. I think Dad had bought the TV especially for the event. It…
ALL THINGS considered, I would prefer to live longer. Of course, it helps if you are in pretty decent nick: things aren’t dropping off, the body and mind still works even though both are getting slower. New global health research published in The Lancet journal shows that we are living longer although not necessarily in…
IT’S A MARKETING ploy as old as Moses and his Ten Commandments. You can’t possibly stay healthy / stay fit / enjoy yourself / progress your career / do anything at all without doing these 100 / 50 / 25 / 10 things which somebody else has determined are must do’s for you. The Top…
LIKE MANY Baby Boomers and pre-Boomers I grew up learning the order of our planets with a little ditty: Mum’s Very Edible Marmalade Jam Sits Nicely Upon Plates. Of course, that was back in the days when there were nine planets, before the star scientists decided to downgrade poor little Pluto. That’s why I’m glad…
THE health warning recently attached to wearing skinny jeans sent me scurrying to my wardrobe to check for any such hazardous apparel. After all, I am a contemporary of Mick Jagger and he seems to have been wearing skinny jeans for ever. It turns out I do have some trousers I can no longer get…
WHAT is it about West Australian drivers that they crash into houses at the rate of about two a week? It’s not as if they are driving through an English village where the houses front straight onto the road. These are suburban homes with a front garden in residential streets where the speed limit is…
Booming Marvellous 