We look down on the Romans. Oh sure, they set up the largest Empire that Europe has ever known, and their city state lasted for over 800 years, which is about four times the length of time that the United States of America has been in existence. But, on t...

In England, GM foods will always be associated with lies and deception. That's for a very good reason, because everything we have been told here about GM over the years is provably untrue. Take one example: we were told that GM crops were necessary for th...

We live in an unshockable society. That's what some people would like to believe. If you're a liberal, you talk about all the progress we've made and how far we've come since the bad old days of the 1950s. If you're a conservative, you talk about the lice...

My brother-in-law has a system. He says it works on a regular basis, and it must do, because every time he comes to visit us, he goes into the local casino and comes out with some small amount of winnings. 'Small'? Yes, that's part of his system. "Most pe...

The reality of becoming famous is not something most people would enjoy. When I was younger, I shared a flat in the city of Bristol and above us, on the next floor, were the pop band known as 'Stackridge'. They were one of a new wave of creative groups in...

'Why don't you move to Russia?' That used to be the call that you would hear in England, back in the 1960s and '70s, every time that anyone criticised the country, the government, or the way of life. The implication, of course, was that if you didn't like...

Every Traditional Publisher should read the book by Nicholas Taleb called 'The Black Swan'. Not least because it's now a runaway best-seller and, in the fine tradition of that category, it was ignored by most publishers who were asked to publish it. If pe...

I saw a car crash today. I was following a car along an urban motorway, that part of the A57 that is called The Mancunian Way, in Manchester. I could see him flip his brake lights a few times, obviously undecided about which exit to take. There was an off...

I live in Manchester, England. It's a unique city. Apart from hosting one of the most famous football teams in the world, and having one of the dampest climates, (although Seattle is worse, apparently), it also has one of the strangest attributes in the c...

In the 1980s I was a member of an active writing circle. We were discussing that old chestnut, 'how to write', and one member proudly said that he couldn't be bothered with these new-fangled word processors that were just about starting to appear in offic...

Internet Authors are like farmers, in that they plough their own furrow. They work alone, often separated from friends and family, wondering - like all writers - if the stories they are producing work will ever see the light of day. Still, they are driven...

Most people remember The Beatles. In the 1960s they were the most famous pop group in the world, and were responsible for writing some of the most memorable songs of that era. People are still humming their tunes today. So where did the songs come from? I...

A met an old pal of mine just the other day. He was looking down, which was a surprise. When I knew him well and we were both in our '20s, he was one of the most irrepressible optimists I've ever met. He was always laughing and joking, always cheerful, no...

We all know the situation, it happens on the TV News every night. The person who's just been flooded out; or seen their house disappear off the end of a cliff or been burnt to the ground; or had a child kidnapped or ransomed; is asked by the interviewer w...

Multi-millionaire Felix Dennis has a great line about feeling like he's nothing more than 'a miserable worm on an insignificant planet, circling an enormous universe'. He's trying to say that we're all pretty small fry, really, whether we're unemployed la...