Rupert Murdoch has called for a Bill of Rights in the UK along the lines of the USA. In fact we have two already. We have the Bill of Rights of 1689. This created the first constitutional monarchy in the world. It separated the powers of the judiciary, the legislature and the executive. And it Read More
Month: August 2012
10 tips for writing long
The delivery today of the first copy of a book I have contributed chapters to prompted me to think: what are the key tips for writing long? I am, by training and perhaps nature, a short writer: news, feature and comment articles are my craft. But contributing two chapters to the book London After Recession: Read More
Helen G Brown: sex, magazine and a brand
So soon after another obituary we have the obit of Helen G Brown, founder for the modern Cosmopolitan magazine. The best obit was in the LA Times. The obit of Gore Vidal was more serious than this one will be. A world brand from excellent magazines and sex Her success was to form a magazine Read More
Cockburn’s objectivity
Back to the hoary old subject of objectivity in journalism. The BBC’s John Simpson raised it in his Radio 4 series on journalism this week. He used an example often use in teaching. It goes back to the Spanish Civil war. Cockburn’s conundrum Claude Cockburn, the left-wing journalist, cooked up a fake report of an Read More
Gore Vidal: RIP
The readership of an author often goes up on their death. I hope this is so with Gore Vidal who died this week. He was a great American observer and acerbic writer of novels, screenplays, essays and reviews. He spent much of his later life living in Italy. He died this week in Los Read More