Campari | Chroma

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Image credit: Chroma magazine.

I recently had a short story—Campari—published in Chroma magazine’s Red Issue. Chroma is a print/online arts magazine.

Note added August 2024: Chroma magazine ceased publication and I’ve now posted the story on my Substack here. The links have been removed above.

Solemn futility in the higher places

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British-politicians-2011
Gordon Brown, Anthony Blair, John Major, Nicholas Clegg and David Cameron. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Executive Office of the President of the United States.

In the real dark night of the soul, it’s always election o’clock. Here come the endlessly repeated phrases, the lines to take today, the turgid interviews, the let me be absolutely clears and hard-working families, the swapping of business/celebrity/expert endorsements, the gaffes and the unread manifestos.

Before you despair, remember that ’twas ever thus… Continue reading →

Brexit: the movie

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Rashômon poster. Credit: Akira Kurosawa/Daiei (1950).
Rashômon poster. Credit: Akira Kurosawa/Daiei (1950).

The Spectator’s affably pro-Remain business correspondent, Martin Vander Weyer, invited readers to answer the party-game question ‘If Brexit was a film…?’ Naturally the replies have been partisan, either pro-Leave or pro-Remain, but then I got to thinking… Continue reading →

Goodbye to all that. Leaving Bristol

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bristol-exitI like Bristol plenty, enough to live here for nearly fifteen years, but I’m not sure I like it in the way I’m supposed to. A typical Bristol enthusiast will tell you that it’s a vibrant, diverse, happening place, like a laid-back outpost of trendy London in the provinces, or a West Country Brighton. A friend overheard a Bristol University student say, ‘Bristol is like a sort of second-home London.’ Well, yah. Continue reading →

In which I went on a wine tour

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Our table at Avignonesi in Montepulciano.
Our table at Avignonesi in Montepulciano. Click to read the piece on Alderman Lushington.

Today in Bristol it’s raining heavily, it’s cool but not cold enough to be satisfying, the leaves are rotting on the pavement, and I’m thinking about drinking good wine with old friends on a hot summer’s day.

Click here to read the not-very-serious spread I published in Alderman Lushington on going on a wine tour in Tuscany.

Difficulties with words. Part 2

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'Dictionaries are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.' Samuel Johnson.
‘Dictionaries are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.’ Samuel Johnson.

Here’s some more vexatious, misunderstood and underused words and phrases. Continue reading →