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John was one of those people who seemed to lead a charmed life. Always the centre and light of the room at any party, he received a first from Oxford University, spoke Italian like a native and went on to become one of the leading lights of his year at the [...]
Mr Hudson and the Library played the seminal Later. . . with Jools Holland last week, in the company of Tony Bennett, Damon Albarn’s new band and Eric Bibb. Have a listen.
Today I sat on an orange sofa and explained an idea I’d had after my front tyre exploded on the marylebone flyover and I’d had to walk the six miles to Ben’s dragging my bike and cursing my absent-minded shortage of inner tubes. I sat there in the offices of the mighty
Having lived in the beating heart of London for so long, I thought I was pretty much unshockable when it comes to the arts. I didn’t raise an eyebrow when Puppetry of the Penis came to town, I didn’t raise my head from my paper to acknowledge Damien Hirst’s rotting livestock, my headphones remained resolutely [...]
Living with the bassist of London’s hottest new band, Mr Hudson & the Library, has its advantages. It means you get to hear when there will be an impromptu rooftop gig for the denizens of Kentish Town road. It means you [...]
The Easter weekend was expensively spent celebrating my good friend Colin McCann’s impending marriage to the beautiful Jo Nielsen in Amsterdam. After throwing go-karts around the track at 50mph and subsequently playing football against some heavy-set locals I didn’t manage to pick up any silverware. However, I managed to set one car on fire, [...]
For its beaches, for its ruined castle and cathedral keeping watch over the North Sea, for its unintentionally comedic street names (Butts Wynd to name but one), St. Andrews will always feel like home to me. The friendships I made and the experiences that shaped me will always be with me and, if I [...]
This week I went back to Gaza. I sat watching a young American woman on a barely-lit stage exploding old memories with each name she uttered against a background of bullet-ridden concrete. My Name is Rachel Corrie, a play based on the writing of a young American observer killed by an IDF bulldozer in [...]
An event I was gutted to miss was the recent Selfish Gene: Thirty Years On at the LSE, which had such luminaries as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennet riffing on each other’s work. Luckily the transcripts and recording are now online. (Via).
I am lucky enough to rent a beautiful Victorian house in vibrant/violent Kentish Town. I’ve been there a few years now and have had (with my flatmates) the bottom two floors, while the top floor was taken by a man in his sixties called Michael.
Michael had been a librarian at the University of London [...]
Today is my father’s birthday. 59 years ago today in a mudhut on the shores of Lake Victoria in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), he came squealing into this world and became the scion of the Haile family. I have always been fascinated by his childhood, spent in an alien country during the sunset of the [...]
Last night I was lucky enough to get on the guestlist for the awesome Mr Hudson and the Library at the Water Rats in Kings Cross (it helps when you live with the bassist). A recent Observer review said that they stood out like tropical birds in a sea of grey indie clones, and [...]
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