LET ME TELL you about Poppy. She was waiting tables in a London French restaurant when I noticed her. She was slight, very young and (as the young have a tendency to be) good looking. She also knew precisely what she was doing.
AI writing - the wrongs
OKAY, I ADMIT IT, I have a problem with copy generated by AI chatbots. That’s hardly surprising, you might think, after all I’m a human who has written for a living for more than half a century. But, to be clear, I’m not in fear of my livelihood - it’s just that chatbot copy is so often very badly done.
The sadness of Grindavik
Life without a hitch
The Magic Rule of Three
Grammar skewl
From Tunbridge Wells to Tuscany by train (and bus)
THE WOMAN in the seat in front of us on the bus we had never intended to take was Asian - perhaps Filipina - middle-aged and dressed like a fashion buyer. She spoke softly in perfect Italian into her smart phone, which she charged from a USB port in the roof of the coach. At one point, she caught my eye and smiled.
You do the walk, yeah, you do the walk of life
Fjord focus
THE RAVEN ON the dockside roof cackled into the wind, its range of vocalisations surprisingly broad. There was that familiar low kronking call like a football rattle slowed down, and a series of chattering noises ending in a higher, repetitive sound almost like laughter. There were no other ravens in sight, and as we walked across Ísafjörður high up in Iceland’s Westfjords I played with the idea that it was trying to tell us something. I couldn’t guess what*.
The ties that break
A YEAR OR TWO before the pandemic, I was learning a piece of publishing software called InDesign and I had just managed to create three embossed lozenges that looked like hallmarked ingots on the page. It sort of made sense to colour them platinum, gold and silver and, for completion, I added a fourth, bronze.
A few thoughts on turning 70
The eyes have it
Lockdown 2: The little things we miss
My fear for journalism ... and democracy
Lockdown 1: Love where you live
The oldest working music hall in the world
I LOVE LONDON - and not only its restaurants and bars, its museums and parks. I love commonplace London, the streets and squares where people have lived, worked, loved and played for centuries, and where they still do. I like the way the lives of Londoners, past and present, are layered in the urban landscape.
Meet my new friend Amanda
Where the wild things are
AT FIRST, I can’t see what Andrew is pointing at. He is clearly excited, but all I can see is a huge, domed bramble bush … and then, among the wiry branches, I begin to make out the shape of antlers. They are brilliantly disguised, and the stag beneath them is standing perfectly still, as if caught in a game of hide and seek.
