Have you ever had the experience of getting tantalisingly close to a big opportunity in your creative career a but not quite making it? Maybe it was a pitch, or a competition, a publishing opportunity, a senior role, or a funding application. Maybe you got really positive feedback. They said you were great, your work […]
The post Are You in the Ballpark? (finally, The 21st Century Creative on YouTube) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When the Covid 19 pandemic struck in 2020, human life on earth was massively disrupted. Not only the human tragedy of millions of lives lost, but also the social and economic damage caused by the virus and our attempts to control it. As a writer and a coach for creatives, I have been particularly concerned […]
The post Creative Disruption: How 12 Creatives on 5 Continents Rose to the Challenge of the Pandemic appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 10 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Itas been my most ambitious season yet, with creatives from 5 continents and probably the closest Iall ever […]
The post How I Created, Funded and Launched My New Podcast (while the World Was in Meltdown) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 9 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. This week we are off to Tokyo, to meet Ichi Hatano, a wonderful artist whose work has deep […]
The post From Tattoos to NFTs with Ichi Hatano appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 8 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Have you ever had the idea for a creative project that youave never quite got round to starting? […]
The post Using Lockdown to Launch a Dream Project with Nicky Mondellini appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you work on your own a in your office or studio, or your bedroom or at your kitchen table a it can feel like no one is watching. So it doesnat matter whether you show up. If you skipped a day on your novel, who would know? If you didnat go to the studio […]
The post All Arts Are Performing Arts appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 7 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today weare focusing on a creative sector that is close to my heart, which was massively disrupted but […]
The post Taking Deep Work Online with Laura Davis appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
A few months ago I was listening to the DavidBowie: AlbumtoAlbum podcast, a terrific show about Bowie hosted by Arsalan Mohammed. In Season 3 episode 11 Arsalan spoke to Donny McCaslin, the leader of the jazz band that Bowie discovered in a New York club, and asked to work with him on what turned out […]
The post Sometimes You Have to Grind the Work Out appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 6 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today we are off to Australia in the company of Charlotte Abroms, a music manager based in Melbourne […]
The post Helping Musicians Through Lockdown with Charlotte Abroms appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Last week I suggested that if youare serious about achieving your creative ambitions, you need to think in terms of projects, not tasks. Because if you get up every morning and ask yourself aWhat should I work on today?a you risk making decisions based on what feels urgent right now, rather than what will make […]
The post Work on Multifaceted Projects appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 5 of the CREATIVE DISRUPTION season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today we are going to look at one of the biggest challenge for many people during lockdown, whether […]
The post Staying Creative as a Parent (Even in a Pandemic) with Kay Lock Kolp appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
When we think of productivity we typically think about tasks and to-do lists, working habits and routines. We focus on how to make the most of our time on a daily or at most a weekly basis. All of which is great, but if this is all we focus on, thereas a danger of getting […]
The post Focus on Projects, Not Tasks appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 4 of the CREATIVE DISRUPTION season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today we meet Amrita Kumar, the co-founder and CEO of Candid Marketing, an innovative marketing agency in India. […]
The post Launching a New Business in the Pandemic with Amrita Kumar appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Marketing is a word that strikes fear into the heart of a lot of creatives. Itas an area where a lot of us feel we donat have a natural talent a weare far more comfortable making work than telling the world about it, let alone trying to get people to buy it. One reason for […]
The post Make Your Marketing Personal with a Media Dashboard appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 3 of the CREATIVE DISRUPTION season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Today we are looking at the world of film and TV production, which was massively disrupted by the […]
The post Rebooting Global Filming with Hometeam appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
A lot of creative professions involve submitting work to gatekeepers of various kinds: agents, editors, publishers, gallerists, funders, producers, studios and competition judges and so on. Yes, the 21st century gives us plenty of options for creating things without gatekeepers a you can sell direct, build your own platform, launch your own event, self-publish or […]
The post Why Rejection Doesnat (Necessarily) Mean Your Work Isnat Good Enough appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Welcome to Episode 2 of the CREATIVE DISRUPTION season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. This week we are off to South Africa, to hear from Earl Abrahams, an artist and filmmaker who […]
The post Lockdown Series: Windows on a Changed World with Earl Abrahams appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
aEat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.a This quote is often attributed to Mark Twain. Apparently thereas no hard evidence linking it to him, but that hasnat stopped it from concentrating the minds of many people when they ask themselves […]
The post Eat that Frog (But Eat the Cake as Well) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today we kick off Season 6 of The 21st Century Creative, the podcast that helps you thrive as a creative professional amid the demands, distractions and opportunities of the 21st Century. The theme for this season is CREATIVE DISRUPTION. Every episode will feature an interview with a creator whose work was disrupted by the Covid-19 […]
The post The Rocky Road for Theatre through the Pandemic with Steven Kunis appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
I hope this finds you as well as can be. Here in the UK weare bracing for what we are assured will be a large wave of Omicron. I know things may be very different for you, depending on where you are in the world. But whatever the circumstances, I hope you are finding your […]
The post Video: Forget the Career Ladder a Start Creating Assets appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Today is the launch of my new podcast, and itas something Iave been planning and dreaming of sharing with you for years. Itas called A Mouthful of Air. And in several ways, itas the opposite of my 21st Century Creative podcast. I designed the two shows to work together from the start, although it’s taken […]
The post My new podcast (and why itas the opposite of The 21st Century Creative) appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Last night I was about to go to bed when I suddenly remembered an idea Iad had for an article a few months ago. Though I say so myself, it was a great idea, and I was keen to revisit it, so I opened up the Scrivener project where I had written it downa| and […]
The post Ideas Are Leprechauns appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Todayas guest on The 21st Century Creative is Michael Bungay Stanier, a returning guest whose interview way back in Season 1 proved very popular. And his book The Coaching Habit turned out to be even more popular, as it went on to sell three quarters of a million copies. Michael is back with some excellent […]
The post Avoiding the Advice Trap with Michael Bungay Stanier appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
A lot of productivity advice tells us that we need to stop procrastinating, beat Resistance, and get things done. The Americans like to talk about ashippinga, meaning finished and sent out for delivery. This emphasis on getting things done and out to market is part of their extraordinary entrepreneurial culture. Famously, Guy Kawasaki even said […]
The post Every Creative Project Is a Revolving Door appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Todayas guest on The 21st Century Creative is Krystal Lauk, an illustrator who took an unconventional path by creating illustrations for tech companies, and founded a studio that counts Google, Uber, Facebook and The New York Times among its clients. Itas a fascinating story of discovery and enterprise at what Krystal calls athe intersection of […]
The post The 21st Century Illustrator with Krystal Lauk appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Iave recently started taking one-to-one Japanese conversation lessons. It hasnat been easy. In fact, itas been a bit of a humbling experience. Between work and family responsibilities, I only have 30 minutes a day to study Japanese, and Iave spent this time every day for the past two years memorising kanji characters, vocabulary and grammar […]
The post You Have to be Bad to Get Good appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Todayas guest on The 21st Century Creative is Cynthia Morris, a coach for creatives who shares insights on the book-writing process, based on her latest book The Busy Womanas Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. So if you are contemplating writing a book – whether itas your first one or your twenty-first – there is […]
The post Writing a World-Changing Book with Cynthia Morris appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
If you think about overhearing something, you probably think of listening to someone elseas conversation, whether deliberately or accidentally, and picking up a titbit of information that you would never otherwise have been privy to. It might be funny, or shocking or useful, or – as in the case of so many loud phone calls […]
The post The Art of Overhearing Yourself appeared first on Creative Coach | Mark McGuinness | Since 1996.
Keir Starmer says the prime minister has no option but to call a general election
Rishi Sunak was dealt a series of shattering blows last night as Labour won a knife-edge battle to seize the West Midlands mayoralty from the Conservatives and Sadiq Khan trounced his Tory rival in London to secure a third term.
The results, along with decisive victories for Labouras Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, Steve Rotheram in Liverpool and Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire, left Labour in charge of most of Englandas mayoralties.
Continue reading...Britain has turned out in force to vote for change. Whenever the Tories go to the country, we will be ready to provide it
Rishi Sunak might have been too scared to put his name on the ballot this week, but voters sent him a clear message in the local elections anyway. Across the country, people turned out to vote for change a from the manufacturing heartlands of Derby to industrial Redditch and Thurrock in Essex. In Aldershot, home of the British army, Labour won Rushmoor borough council, ending 24 years of Tory rule. Ten more police and crime commissioners a which, as a former chief prosecutor, makes me incredibly proud. And in York and North Yorkshire, the first Labour mayor, in the prime ministeras back garden.
Victories in traditional Tory territory across the country are important to me. Itas not just about the numbers, though of course they matter: itas the choice of the electorate to turn their back on 14 years of decline and division, and embrace national renewal with Labour.
Continue reading...Running as a apseudo-independenta in a region in which Labour faced its own hurdles was not enough to keep Tory mayor in office
After a nail-biting finale, Andy Street has become the most high-profile victim of tanking Tory support in Mayas elections.
With the Conservatives shedding seats across the country on Friday, all eyes were on the West Midlands on Saturday to see if he could cling on by sheer will of personality a or aBrand Andya as he calls it.
Continue reading...Rob Ford was part of the BBC team analysing the local election results as they poured in over the past 48 hours. Here he tells how a dramatic set of results for the government unfolded
The nervous wait for the first result was longer than usual, as counting centres wrestled with multiple ballots for councils, mayors and police and crime commissioners. It was well past midnight on Friday morning when the first ward flashed up, coming as always from Sunderland, which prides itself on its rapid vote counting. A big Tory to Labour swing in Sunderlandas Copt Hill.
As we moved into the small hours of the morning, the flow of data rose from a trickle to a torrent, and an overall picture began to form. Voters clearly wanted the Conservatives out. Who they wanted instead was less clear.
Continue reading...Devastating defeats give Tory MPs more reasons to fear what will befall them when the country delivers its verdict
The mayoral elections demonstrated that there is a way to win for a Conservative. This is to make out that you have nothing to do with the Tories.
Of the metro mayorships that were up for grabs, just one has been bagged for the Conservatives. The re-election of Ben Houchen in Tees Valley is being used as a human shield by Rishi Sunak to fend off any attempt to depose him from Downing Street. Heas relying on this sole glimmer of cheer for his party to convince it that a disastrous general election defeat is not inevitable and to blunt the daggers of those in his own party who want him gone.
Continue reading...Longer sentences and court backlogs push 25% of prisoners in England and Wales into shared cells, adding to drug-use and violence
The scale of the prison overcrowding crisis has been laid bare by figures revealing that a quarter of prisoners in England and Wales have been sharing cells designed for one person with at least one other inmate.
According to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), 11,018 cells intended for single use were being shared by two prisoners, with a further 18 such cells shared by three inmates. The overall prison population a which has ballooned over recent decades because of longer sentences and court backlogs a stood at about 88,000 when the statistics were originally compiled in late February.
Continue reading...Egyptian and US mediators report signs of compromise, but many analysts remain pessimistic
Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose on Saturday as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel, to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days and Egyptian state news channel Al-Qahera said on Saturday that a consensus had been reached in the indirect talks over many of the disputed points but gave no further details.
Continue reading...Lost documents prevented victims from finding out the truth, official inquiry told
Disastrous failures that caused the contaminated blood scandal were denied by ministers for decades after officials destroyed, lost and blocked access to key documents, memos submitted to the official inquiry reveal.
Several batches of files involving the work of a blood safety advisory committee were shredded as the government faced the threat of legal action, documents show. Patients who were given contaminated blood when they were children have also told the infected blood inquiry how their hospital medical files were destroyed or initially withheld.
Continue reading...Centre-right politicians must resist urge to copy or work with far right, Spainas environment minister says
The future of the EU is being jeopardised by people stirring up social tensions for short-term political gain, Spainas environment minister has said ahead of next monthas European parliamentary elections.
Teresa Ribera, who is heading the list for the ruling Spanish Socialist Workersa party in Juneas poll, said the European project is at risk of aan implosiona.
Continue reading...The UK regulator has been criticised by grieving families and internet abuse survivors for failing to engage with them
Bereaved parents and abuse survivors who have endured years of apreventable, life-changing harma linked to social media say they have been denied a voice in official discussions about holding tech firms to account.
Mariano Janin, whose Adaughter Mia, 14, killed herself after online bullying, and the parents of Oliver Stephens, 13, who was murdered after a dispute on social media, are among those who have accused Ofcom of excluding them from a Aconsultation process for tackling online harms.
Continue reading...Union to campaign against single-phrase Ofsted judgments, threatening possible strike action
Headteachers in England are to launch a campaign for the abolition of ainhumane and unreliablea single-phrase school inspection judgments, threatening legal challenges and possible strike action if the government refuses reforms.
Delegates to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) annual conference committed the union ato explore all campaign, legal and industrial routes to secure necessary changes to inspection to safeguard leadersa lives,a after the suicide last year of the headteacher Ruth Perry.
Continue reading...Firms said food and plant checks and Latin names causing costly delays with lorries waiting hours in first week of post-EU regime
Of all the effects of Brexit, probably the least anticipated was that flower exporters and customs officials would have to learn Latin.
But that is one of the problems that confronted British businesses in the first week after the government introduced physical checks on some food and plants from the EU.
Continue reading...Union leader Sharon Graham says Keir Starmer risks alimping into Downing Streeta
Labouras biggest union backer has warned it may divert election funding earmarked for the party, amid claims that Keir Starmer is diluting plans to overhaul workersa rights.
In an interview with the Observer, Uniteas general secretary, Sharon Graham, said the Labour leader risked alimping into Downing Streeta if he backed down in the face of intense lobbying from businesses.
Continue reading...Organisers of this yearas environmental conference hope cooperation on green issues could help ease global tensions
This yearas Cop29 UN climate summit will be the first aCop of peacea, focusing on the prevention of future climate-fuelled conflicts and using international cooperation on green issues to help heal existing tensions, according to plans being drawn up by organisers.
Nations may be asked to observe a aCop trucea, suspending hostilities for the fortnight-long duration of the conference, modelled on the Olympic truce, which is observed by most governments during the summer and winter Olympic Games.
Continue reading...His constantly evolving works have been hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements
Frank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.
Gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, who spoke with Stellaas family, confirmed his death to the Associated Press. Stellaas wife, Harriet McGurk, told the New York Times that he died of lymphoma.
Continue reading...I travelled the UK interviewing teenage boys. I found openness, thoughtfulness, honesty and vulnerability on topics from sex to pornography, feelings and isolation
It was two separate conversations that made me think properly about what life might be like as a boy these days. The first was about a 13-year-old, the son of a friend, who said he had been rounded on for making a small (and, he thought, complimentary) comment about a girlas haircut.
He told his mother that the girlas friends were outraged: aOh my God, you canat say that about someoneas appearance. Thatas so bad. You canat talk about a girl like that!a
Continue reading...Anger and grief have erupted, with women demanding action from the government on what has become a national emergency
It was the death of Samantha Murphy that prompted a sense that something in Australia was very wrong.
The 51-year-old mother of three left her home in Ballarat in regional Victoria to go for a jog at around 7am on a Sunday morning in early February and did not return.
Continue reading...The Georgian governmentas bid to pass Russia-style law has met spirited opposition, mostly from young people keen to lean towards Europe
The finale of Beethovenas arevolutionarya fifth symphony was met with deafening applause at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Tbilisi last Thursday night. The cheers grew into a powerful expression of solidarity with the protests outside on Rustaveli Avenue.
People hung EU flags from the theatreas balconies and shouted, aNo to the Russian Law! Europe! Georgia [Sa-kar-tve-lo]!a
Continue reading...The writer of a new book about life on Earth seen through the prism of the egg says the age-old paradox actually leads us back a billion years a to the bottom of the ocean
The chicken or the egg? Sometimes, as a zoology author, I am asked this question by the kid at the front with the raised hand and large questioning eyes. Sometimes itas the older guy at the back with a glint in his eye. Sometimes itas a student who approaches the lectern at the end of a lecture while everyone else files out. The same mischievous eyes, the same wry smile. aSo which came first?a they ask, beaming, unaware that this is not the first time I have been asked.
I hadnat foreseen, years ago, when I began exploring the evolution of the animal egg and the role it has played in the long history of life on this planet, that it would become pretty much the only question I would be asked. I spent years reframing the evolution of life on Earth as a story told from the eggas perspective, tracing this strange vesselas adaptation to land, its movement across continents, the evolution of the umbilical cord, the evolution of the placenta, menstruation, menopausea| but even now, having finally turned this journey into a book, I expect that a great deal of my dialogue with readers will be chicken-based.
Continue reading...Legacy can be found in the lives you touch and your impact on others
The question I am a 54-year-old woman with a good career and a stable marriage. I live across the globe from my parents, my siblings and their kids and I am child-free. I have reduced contact with them to brief and polite birthday and Christmas messages, which they respond to, but we have no relationship or ongoing contact as such. It is close to estrangement, and I have no desire to try to repair this. I am child-free because I always feared repeating my familyas parenting style and had no sense of my childhood as a positive experience.
I have become preoccupied with the idea of a legacy of a life well lived. I have always placed high value on social contribution and working hard. But, as I increasingly ponder the likelihood of dying alone and without children, I have started to become quite critical about the point of striving in my career, and how and what I should be doing with my time. I feel abeing forgottena is a realistic proposition a and it leads me to wonder whether this is liberating, and I can stop striving, do as I please, or should I strive harder and find a way of leaving my mark, ensuring I have a life that will mean something? Is this just an indulgent existential crisis? Do I need to just get over myself?
Continue reading...aFormerly best known as The Crownas Prince Charles, the aBritish actor ais starring as a cocky US tennis pro in Guadagninoas new hit film. But, he says, he was happiest living off grid in a van for his next film, La Chimera
What makes a movie star? Josh OaConnor, the 33-year-old British actor best known until, well, last week as the thin-skinned, tight-lipped Prince Charles in seasons three and four of The Crown, has been mulling over this question of late. Earlier this year he completed a drama set in the first world war called The History of Sound, with Paul Mescal. aPaulas a friend, and to watch him work was amazing,a says OaConnor. aI really canat underplay how brilliant he is. Paul has that movie-star quality, whatever that is. I wish I could articulate it, but heas just graceful about it all.a
Zendaya is another one. OaConnor is currently in cinemas alongside her in Challengers, Luca Guadagninoas critically acclaimed psychosexual tennis romp, which topped the box offices in both the UK and US last weekend. They play two sides of a lascivious love triangle, with Mike Faist as the third, but it is clear that Zendayaas Tashi Duncan is the one pulling the strings. aIave never done premieres like Iave done with Challengers,a says OaConnor. aSo thatas alien to me anyway, but to see how she breezes through them with such class and generosity. Iam a nervous wreck, I donat think Iam helpful to anyone. And Mike as well, weare both a bit like: aWhat the fuck? This is mad!a But sheas just on the nail.
Continue reading...Berkshire Hathawayas billionaire CEO, 93, steels shareholders for new era at the annual meeting known as aWoodstock for Capitalistsa
As dawn broke on Saturday, thousands had gathered outside Omahaas CHI Health Center Arena. Some arrived before 3.30am, standing for hours in the drizzle.
This is a aonce-in-a-lifetime opportunitya, said Larry Blivas, 70, near the front of the line. The realtor traveled from Los Angeles to see aan icona, he explained.
Continue reading...With a famed pie maker on board, the new aBritish brasseriea in Paris ought to be glorious. Instead, itas a huge disappointment
Public House, 21 rue Daunou, 75002 Paris, France (+33 1 77 37 87 93; publichouseparis.fr). Starters a!8.50-a!19.50; mains a!19.50-a!36.50; desserts a!9-a!15; wines from a!28
It was a simple plan: hop on the Eurostar to Paris and go for dinner at Public House, a new and audacious restaurant in the 9th arrondissement by pie king Calum Franklin, formerly of the Holborn Dining Room. Its mission: to bring scotch eggs, sausage rolls and the best, most golden, flaky pastry creations to the French. I could then write a sweet observational piece about the bourgeoisie of the Louboutin-shod opera district swooning over steak and ale pies, and adjusting both their corsets and their gastronomic perspective. Behold, the gravy-slicked anglais showing us how to eat. aDonney-moi une autre piea etc. Because if anybody could do it, if anybody could finally make the French understand the quality and depth of modern British restaurant food, it had to be Franklin. Heas a gifted chef. Heas a lovely man. He literally wrote the book on pies. Go Calum, go.
Continue reading...The celebrated awriter, who died last week, is captureda by Arnold Newman in his study ain 1993a with his trusty Olympia manual typewritera
Few novelists ever inhabited their vocation with more conviction than Paul Auster, who died last week of lung cancer at the age of 77. This picture, taken in 1993 by Arnold Newman, captured the writer in his element and among the objects that defined him.
The author of The New York Trilogy is pictured in his basement study in the Brooklyn brownstone house that he shared with his wife, novelist Siri Hustvedt (she wrote in a room in the attic). The white walls and bare lightbulbs cast the 19th-century workspace in 20th-century light; you are reminded that his contemporary and friend Don DeLillo had, the previous year, described Austeras fictional method as abuilding a traditional storytelling architecture with sharply modern interiorsa. There is the ever-present authorial cigarette a Austeras 1995 film Smoke was set in a Brooklyn tobacconist (he belatedly switched to a vape in 2018) a and, centre stage, the Olympia manual typewriter on which he produced every word of his novels and which was itself the subject of a short 2002 book.
Continue reading...An absorbing study of five Labour radicals a Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, John McDonnell, Ken Livingstone, plus Benn himself a makes a convincing case for their cultural victories but romanticises Corbynas years as the partyas leader
This might seem like an eccentric book. As Labour prepares for power after four consecutive general election defeats, Andy Beckett is interested not in what is to come but what has just been. He is particularly preoccupied by the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, what happened to him as party leader and what his leadership represented. The Searchers is mostly fair-minded, diligently reported and researched, but leaves you in no doubt that Beckett, a Guardian columnist, is a sympathetic Corbynite.
In the long, final section, covering 2015 to the present day, Beckett writes nostalgically about the excitement of the early years of Corbynas leadership when the left, for so long ridiculed, traduced and marginalised (Peter Mandelson joked during the era of New Labour dominance that they had been contained in a asealed tomba), seized control of the party and unlocked a spirit of radical countercultural optimism, especially among younger voters.
Continue reading...As China launches its Changae-6 mission to the far side of the moon, US officials have expressed alarm at the pace of its advancements
The worsening rivalry between the worldas two most powerful countries that has in recent years spread across the world, has now extended beyond the terrestrial, into the realms of the celestial.
As China has become deeply enmeshed in strategic competition with the US a while edging towards outright hostilities with other regional neighbours a Washingtonas alarm at the pace of its advancement in space is growing ever-louder.
Continue reading...Pep Guardiola believes Erling Haaland is aback to businessa after the strikeras four-goal haul in Manchester Cityas 5-1 defeat of Wolves, with the manager urging the champions to win their final three Premier League games to ensure a record fourth consecutive title.
Haaland scored a first-half hat-trick, including two penalties, and added his fourth following the break to take his Premier League tally to 25 at the Etihad Stadium. Victory kept City a single point behind Arsenal a but Guardiolaas side have a game in hand. If they beat Fulham next Saturday and Mikel Artetaas side lose at Manchester United the following day, City can retain the championship by beating Tottenham on Tuesday week.
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