For a man with a brain not remotely mathematical, I always liked coded messages, and still enjoy trying to do those codewords in housewives’ puzzle books where you can send…

The other day I visited a printing works. From a professional point of view it was fascinating to learn how the process works and why we prepare documents and magazines…

Everyone seems to look better with the colour stripped out. While I was strolling through Florence the other week, I came upon a black and white photo booth, tucked behind…

Did anyone else used to have Pelham puppets? In our family they were the cross-generational toy. When my father and my auntie were young, their granny had a room in…

I’m going to Florence next week. A few days to stroll around a strange place on my own. I haven’t bought a guidebook, and my preparation thus far has been…

This morning I discovered this quote from Edward Gorey, and I rather like it. Presumably he was attempting to justify The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a book about dead children that works…

I have a feeling that the girl in flat 3, while pleasant enough, is not one of life’s survivors, or at least has a nervous temperament that is rather unsuited…

Despite other calamities, I have never been badly injured. I have never broken a bone, nor been cut deeply enough to require more than a bit of superglue, a steri-strip…

Being unemployed has its downsides, but it does mean that you’re available for unusual experiences that someone in a nine-to-five would have to turn down. I got hitched the other…

Another day, another ad in my in-box that informs me that e-book readers are now reduced in price at various retail outlets. I wonder if anyone has ever bought one,…