British Photographer Andrew Brooks with the Visual Power of the Romantic Painters
Fine art photographer Andrew Brooks happily acknowledges he is standing on the shoulders of giants when it comes to creating his own unique atmospheric pictures. Seven years ago British photographer Andrew Brooks took me on after a series of unexpected events kick-started my life as a freelance writer. As...
Read More
The World’s Shortest Poem and Muhammad Ali
As Black History Month begins today on National Poetry Day, it brings to mind how a little-known poem by Muhammad Ali became a contender for the world’s shortest poem. Previously, the generally accepted holder of this title was poet Strickland Gillilan, that was until, Ali the greatest boxer of...
Read More
Sophie Willan, Comedian: Alma’s Not Normal
Never mind the bog rolls, if ever the country needed a reet good gallows laugh it is now. Fortunately for us, there’s a comedian who can help us in our dark hour....
Read More
Millfield School: Smells Like Team Spirit
From the moment the Millfield Girls 1st XI first stepped onto the astroturf together in the September of 1989, I knew we had that special kind of magic....
Read More
Old Millfieldian Simon Beck: Snow Artist – A Cool New Art Form
For over a decade he has been walking in snowshoes to draw incredible geometric images on the pure white snow of the Alps. And the rest is as they say mathematics......
Read More
Hunter S. Thompson’s Prescient 9/11 Column Still Holds True Today
When the self-invented gonzo and sports journalist's career was allegedly in a terminal nose dive he wrote this piece for his Hey Rube column in the couple of days after the planes hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, because as he says 'even ESPN were broadcasting war news'....
Read More
How Nana Helped Me Become A Writer
Or How One Adoption Played A Crucial Role In Three Generations Of My Family Kathleen’s arm rests on an old printing press at the Beck Isle Museum in Pickering, Yorkshire. She possibly worked this exact machine – a Colombian Letterpress Double Demi – when she was a young woman...
Read More
The Reading Room by Quarantine in Central Library
“I’ve never been in here before,” said Jules about Central Library. “It is completely overwhelming.” Despite being a resident of Manchester for eighteen years, it’s not really surprising as reading has never been one of her favourite things to do. An undiagnosed dyslexic at school in the 1980s...
Read More
Manchester Alexandra Park Protest
Dear Alexandra,
It’s been nearly three weeks since we started hacking trees off you left, right and centre.
My heart breaks into a thousand pieces that we can’t fix the damage that has been done.
Please forgive us....
Read More
Snezana Pupovic and The Art of Emotion at the World Event Young Artists
Last September a train hurtled itself along the tracks in a sorry state from Manchester to Nottingham, it took me with it and delivered me and my frayed edges into the New Art Exchange. This venue was hosting the World Event Young Artists, a showcase of of 1000 artists from...
Read More
David Shrigley: Little Drawings Big Issues
Colin the Big Issue seller had a busy week last week. His pitch is right outside the main entrance of the Cornerhouse that has just opened its doors to David Shrigley’s new show How Are You Feeling? and the ever-affable artist designed the cover on the magazine. “I sold...
Read More
The 138th Kentucky Derby – The View from the Backside
A red-stitched baseball cap hung lopsidedly on the head of a man named Jamie. He swigged a Miller High Life and said, ‘I’m going to pace myself to three or four beers an hour.’ He was the favourite to fall first. An in-house sweepstake amongst our friends had him...
Read More