Artist Ashley Loxton Talks Chicken Boxes And Rave Flyers
We came across Ashley Loxton's paintings at a gallery exhibition in Margate. The sea was lashing in with the rain, doing nothing for the Kent coastal town's resurgence, the sky was the colour of...
View ArticleThe Impact Of Free Speech On Human Rights
Free speech is something that we often take for granted. It is also something that is widely debated and often controlled. There are many parts of the world where free speech isn’t even something that...
View ArticleIn The City: Manchester Photographer's Up Close Look At Urban Life
Robert Cappa once said "If your pictures aren't good enough, you weren't close enough", a sentiment that's obviously never troubled Manchester based street photographer David Gleave. Gleave's...
View ArticleDating And The Internet: The Perils And Perks
Online dating, though, has not always enjoyed a good reputation. There are things about it that some people just don’t like. However, for many, it has been the answer to prayers, allowing them to meet...
View ArticleSix Must-Read Books About World War One
If your only impression is through the, admittedly fantastic, Blackadder Goes Forth or Alan Clarke’s book The Donkeys you’d be forgiven for believing it was nothing more than a futile and wasteful war...
View ArticleA Very Sicilian Justice: Meet The Man Who Took On The Mafia
Hero is an overused word nowadays. But Sicilian Judge Antonino Di Matteo is unequivocally a hero. Toby Follett and Paul Sapin’s stunning documentary, “A Very Sicilian Justice” (narrated by Helen Mirren...
View Article10 Of The Deadliest Drinks Known To Man
So, it's late, you're not totally sure where you are, and your friend is ordering some drink you've never heard of for you. He's insisting that he was told by someone, who heard from their uncle, who...
View ArticleD.B. Cooper: The World’s Greatest Hijacker
Forty years ago, a man known only as D.B. Cooper boarded a flight in Portland, ordered a bourbon and soda, lit a cigarette, handed a note to a stewardess announcing a hijacking, and -- after a...
View ArticleMeet The British Man Who Left His House And Business To Fight ISIS
Until early 2015, Tim Locks lived a comfortable life running his successful construction business and enjoying the swimming pool it had enabled him to incorporate into his home. Like most of us he was...
View ArticleThe Top 10 Condiments Of All-Time
Before I launch into this list let’s clear the pathway to ensure a smooth ride by defining the word “condiment”. The dictionary will tell you it’s an umbrella term that includes everyday sprinkling...
View ArticleFallen Glory: History's 5 Greatest Lost Buildings
5. The Hippodrome of Constantinople The Roman Empire was responsible for some of history’s greatest displays of architectural grandeur, power, arrogance – and even vulgarity. It exported buildings...
View ArticleConfessions Of A Muslim Squaddie Part 2: Denouncing The War Took Real Bravery
RAF Brize Norton, England, 2003. Brize Norton looked like any other airport; big warehouses and one-way roads except all the people who worked there wore RAF blue and all of us who were flying out wore...
View ArticleSubbuteo: The Game That Made Heroes Of Us All
While it is apparently possible to master Subbuteo and implement swerve, spin and intricate passing moves, to most of us it was an ill-tempered game that lacked pattern, was littered with errors and...
View ArticleAn Ode To The Pre-Festival Party Train
It starts with an ironically named WhatsApp group: ‘Festival Dicks’, ‘Bangs Out For Bestival’, ‘NoClassTonBury’, ’sprREADING’, or ’Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Turds.' “So you’re getting the 10.40,...
View ArticleStreets Of Rage 2 Is Still The Greatest Video Game Ever Made
The first level dropped you bang in the middle of the neon-lit, rain sodden streets. Evil megalomaniac Mr X had taken control of the city, backed up by a gang of thugs in double-denim with names nobody...
View ArticleAlessandro Moreschi: The Last Castrato
Luckily, or indeed unfortunately if you're reading this in the context of having watched X Factor recently, having one's balls cut off isn't a prerequisite for a successful singing career these days....
View ArticleThe 10 Easiest Fiction Books to Read In One Sitting
Here are 10 books that are not only fantastic works of literature, worthy of study and dissection and all the rest of it, but are also ripping yarns that command your attention from the first page to...
View ArticleThe Day I Saw Somebody Shoot Off His Own Face
In the springtime of 1987 I was working as an assistant to a fine artist called Christina Woodhouse (R.I.P) in my home town, Hull. Most Friday lunchtimes I would have a pint and a game of pool with a...
View ArticleAn Ex-Spy Told Us The 16 Best Ways To Interrogate Someone
In the movies one spy or prisoner knows everything; if the interrogator breaks him/her, the critical intelligence and the truth all tumble out. That’s show biz! In reality, real interrogation work...
View ArticleWhy I'm Doing A Sponsored Smoke For Cancer Charities
Vicky was close to death. She laughed as I told her about my sponsored smoke. Her eyes twinkled, That’s so you… Awkward twat. ‘If these things make your illness so much more difficult, there must be...
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