Ever since I posted about Nigella and her latest pseudo-literary effort, I discussed the title of her book with a handful of people all equally appalled at the missing 's. Still, you should not take everything I say literally, you know? As I was talking to one of these friends, we both pondered on the feeble pun that was at stake here; Nigella seeing herself as a Santa-like figure to the extent that she becomes Nigella Christmas, the wife of Father Christmas, just as I suggested in my last... Read Full Story

There was a time in my life when summer was my favourite stretch of the year. This, of course, was when summer meant a definitive season, when it meant the seaside where big palms would swing in the wind and salt and sand and the hot sun where all that there was to it until September. But autumn is so much better and now that I am free to walk about parks when I should be in the office (insert big grin here), it feels special, magical, even wicked, yes. Today I went out with a friend of mine... Read Full Story

Unusually insightful, in one of my PhD chapters I say: 'Happiness is often defined as expectation or as a fleeting state of mind that, like trance, can only be identified retrospectively. History and horror, as well as their combinations, share the same elusive quality as happiness: they are not experienced, they are remembered in a fashion that is both clean and detached because life may only be understood retrospectively but must still be lived forward'. Press pause on the crinkling... Read Full Story

I've been told by a couple of readers that I've slacked as of late and that I have not recommended new readings. This shocked me; not the realisation that I had not recommended books but that someone had actually noticed. I suppose it was one of those cases whereby The Book shone by its absence. But of course I have been reading; books about writing, creating, knitting, about changing careers, about fashion and about cooking. Only last week I was perusing shelves and found an inexplicable... Read Full Story

I can never get a decent pic of my dog Victoria, who seems to be repulsed by the idea of posing for a camera. I should not be surprised; she is a girl through and through. I expect that one of these days she will wolf at me that she is getting fat and that she would prefer not to be photographed thank you please. William on the other hand finds the camera compelling. I have countless pictures where I had to fight him off the lens in order to photograph the original object of my interest and... Read Full Story

When it doesn't rain, it is an event. It is even more of an event when autumn has just started and the no rain situation yields a very rare, but very beautiful, sunny and dry day. I suppose that's what I get for living in England's wettest county... When the weather is like this, I always feel a very sharp pang of nostalgia. Nostalgia for the so-called Michealmas Term at the university, when we had just rolled back into our carpeted rooms, ready for weeks of lectures, seminars, essays and... Read Full Story

Today is a seminal day for Nigellites the world over; La Lawson has revealed that her last name is not Lawson at all or not even Saatchi at a stretch. Oh no, from now on Nigella goes by the last name of Christmas. I am nearly speechless on this one, and it does take an awful lot of grit-like ignorance to reduce me to a state of keyboard-dumbness, I can assure you. I have emailed Lynne Truss with my thoughts on this problem, although I realise she may have died and gone to Grammar Hell on... Read Full Story

When I used to get up early in the morning to get ready for work, I felt like I was torn from the warm arms of a gorgeous, unknown lover. I remember that, on a couple of occasions, the tearing intrusion of the alarm clock had dissipated Jon Bon Jovi and Christian Bale into the vague mist of early morning, my mind still reeling from multiple could have beens if only that damn clock had not gone off. Now that I do not have to get up for such bourgeois crap as going to the office, I wake up... Read Full Story

Another month gone by and by far and large one of the super-bestest Septembers on record. I finished work and I enjoyed a fantastic stretch of contemplative writing tasks. I am sure it can get better still, but I feel like I must throw in a cliché and say that it doesn't get any better than this. There is a lot of excitement down the pipeline and I feel that what I should talk about today is a bit of a turn-around for me. A few months ago I wrote this about my life: 'It may be a small life... Read Full Story

I get London. I really get London's charme and character and fashionable ideals and wacko philosophy but I do not see why Manchester should always get stick for its wet weather. There was a time when London was famous for its fog (as was Milan) and even got a song about it (A Foggy Day In London Town), so why is it that Manchester doesn't get a song about being steely gray? I think it looks great, what with its perfect blend of traditional and modern, and this alone is deserving of its very... Read Full Story