Gone to south west Africa

I won’t be blogging live again until early March because me and Moth have gone …

Solid air, solid genius

I find it difficult to write objectively about the music of John Martyn because I find his songs so powerful it is as if he wrote them deliberately to reduce me to a quivering jelly.

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West Country magic

Do you like my new painting? I’m very pleased with it, and it’s been a wonderful and life-affirming thing to work on during these really difficult and painful last few weeks.
In it I’ve tried to weave together a number of geographical features …

Big bully

I’m glad Channel 4 and Endemol are not going to pull …

Remembering Rebecca

Rebecca van der Putt, known to her friends as Bec or treaclechops, was my best mate. And now she’s gone, taken by cancer, aged only 38. Just like George Gershwin. I met her in 1991 when I started work at Oxford College of Further Education. We hit it of…

Quagga quest

In 1883, the last quagga died in Amsterdam zoo. As a lover of equines, I have always been intrigued by the quagga’s sad story – hunted to extinction until only one lonely specimen rem…

The best of women

Remember I told you about my friend who was diagnosed with cancer in October? She died in Nightingale House Hospice in Wrexham earlier today. If you knew her you were very, very lucky. …

Magic places, magic people

I intended to blog loads over the holiday period but have been so miserable I haven’t felt able to. To cheer myself up a bit I was thinking about the wonderful things I did in 2006. Two moments stand out. Allow me to indulge myself and share them with y…