It's 30 years ago today since John Lennon was murdered. Had he lived he would have been 70 years of age.   It's one of those events. Like the death of JFK and the first Moon landing, you will always remember exactly where you were when it... Read more

  Writer Alan Sillitoe has died aged 82. Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, his excellent portrayal of life in and out of the Raleigh Factory in Nottingham did much to lift me from the romantic nonsense of James Bond into grittier fiction,... Read more

The dog's unwell and I'm still crippled with arthritis and the after effects of Angie's gramophone, the one aggravating the other, and I find it difficult to walk further than 100 yards. Notwithstanding that, we left Max at home and shot into ... Read more

As you know I'm on sick again. Six months last year, five months the year before last and god knows how long this time. Rumour has it that my employer now rues the day he took me on. I'm not surprised. If I were him, I'd consider sacking me. &... Read more

   I was so busy yesterday that I almost forgot. Had he lived, my father, known to grandma as “our Billy” would have been 83 yesterday (June 20.)   I was always closer to my mother. A stern disciplinarian who never st... Read more

Well, the Easter break is over, and all the little swine go back to school tomorrow. And I have to go swimming again. I never go when the kids are off. All that water, all those brats. Too tempting to drown the little buggers. My ex-wife tells a lot... Read more

  About 35 years ago, in dark days of December, I was on a regular job trucking waste paper from Leeds to Manchester. Down the hill I came from Junction 22, which for those who don't know is on the Yorks/Lancs border, and I ran into thick fog. ... Read more