A pint of fruit cider and a dish of cockles It’s mid-afternoon on a Wednesday in February and I’m sitting in a village pub by a station a few miles outside Newcastle. A man wearing black jeans and a smart jacket walks in, looks around the silent, almost empty bar, and asks: “Who died?” Then […]
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More and more of my work these days is for charities. In the last month, I’ve written an annual report for Help Musicians UK, fundraising materials for The Brooke and a report for The National Trust. But as well as my everyday work as a freelance writer, I also wheel out my harp on occasion […]
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Every year, Matt Locke and his crew bring together extraordinary speakers for The Story, an exploration of storytelling at Conway Hall in Holborn. The ideas fizzle and crackle all day, colliding and coalescing, firing up synapses and sparking a host of connections, leaving the audience buzzing. This year’s edition, on 20 February 2015, was my […]
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What skills do you need to become a successful graphic designer? According to Lydia Thornley, nosiness is up there as a core skill, along with design sense, visual awareness and lateral thinking. Nosiness generally gets a bad press, but maybe it’s time to rehabilitate the word. According to Lydia, who runs a design practice in East […]
Read more...Recently I’ve been involved in writing proposals for architecture firms, and have gathered that architects can be quite dismissive of the value of marketing. “We’d prefer our work to speak for itself,” one architect told me the other day, “rather than having to schmooze potential clients and jump through hoops to prove our worth.” Which […]
Read more...Sheila Stewart chose a momentous day in a momentous place for her final concert. It happened in Bannockburn on 18 September 2014 – the day of the Scottish referendum for independence. When the concert started the polling stations were still open, and the man sitting next to me had skipped off polling duty for a […]
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If you go to a jazz or free improv gig and see a woman up on stage in amongst the musicians, not playing but drawing, it’s probably Julie Pickard. Julie’s an artist and writer who produces extraordinary expressionist drawings that are a response to her experience of live music. Details of instruments and musicians emerge from the […]
Read more...About a year ago, Nokia asked me to interview some people for a new book that Gestalten were publishing on Finnish Design. I talked to Finns in Brighton about their love of Iitala glassware and gin in a tin, and interviewed designers Jasper Morrison and Wataru Kumano about a chair they were making for Finnish furniture company […]
Read more...Gill Wildman has been on a circular journey to Hackney Wick. Growing up in nearby Bow, she used to visit family in the area. She studied in Manchester and worked all over the world before returning to E9 a few months ago. Together with her husband, Nick Durrant, she makes up Plot, a refreshingly forward-thinking […]
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Charlotte Barker tells me how her research led to the discovery of a hidden Georgian chocolate kitchen at Hampton Court Palace. A few weeks ago, I went to a storytelling workshop at the Tower of London. At the end of the day, we all had to tell a story relating to our work. Charlotte Barker, […]
Read more...You never know quite what will happen at The Story, except that it will illuminate distant areas of your brain with unpredictable copper sparks for some time to come. Here are a few of the things I learned from this year’s gathering of storytellers of all stripes – from film makers, writers and artists to […]
Read more...Mike Paisley loves simplicity, making things and tinfoil gadgets. We first met when he was involved in Throwawaylines, a wonderful project which treated rubbish like royalty. Mike is a Design Director at The Partners, where he’s solved brand and communication problems for clients as diverse as LV=, eBay, Allen & Overy, HSBC, Penguin and Richard […]
Read more...Michael Volpe is a true opera aficionado. For nearly 25 years, he’s been General Manager of Opera Holland Park, enthusing a new generation of opera lovers with an eclectic mix of outdoor performances. Although his family comes from the mountains outside Naples, Michael grew up in England. He drinks Italian espresso, but when Chelsea […]
Read more...You might remember that a few weeks ago I mentioned a new project, 26 Stories of Christmas. Well, the site went live yesterday for the first day of advent. Day one features my 62 word poem about the flying reindeer of Finland. The 62 word poem, or ‘sestude’, is inspired by the fabulous drawing of Santa […]
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