Okay, so teachers need to re-charge their batteries but when did we arrive at the current number of school holidays? Grannies of the world unite and make your voices heard. Actually, I suspect I get more writing done when time is constrained than wh... Read more

Chips are the bete noir of nutritionists in 2011 and in the 1940s when Ena Lamont Stewart wrote her play, Men Should Weep, about the effects of the Great Depression on working class Glasgow, that's what was going on the table. I saw the Scottish Nat... Read more

Why do so many of the producers of children's popular drama on tv and on stage believe that their audience are all deaf? I'm helping my daughter out during school holiday week and I don't even have to go into the living-room to ensure my grandson is... Read more

Sometimes you hold back from something because you feel it's been so recommended it can't be that good. In the case of The King's Speech, I felt that might happen. It didn't. It was fantastic. So good on so many levels, I left the cinema feeling... Read more

The only sure way to get out of a committee is death but moving from Edinburgh to Bristol proved quite as effective - for the woman who handed me the file. Now, I've set you up for a complaining rant but you're going to be disappointed. In true scr... Read more

A driving instructor (and I had several) once told me I was the most right dominant pupil he'd ever taught. He was talking about the way my brain works and not my politics. It had been pointed out to me earlier when I was playing badminton at sc... Read more