Shortly before the 2026 World Cup I bought Jonathan Wilson's new book The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup . I'd read his Inverting the Pyramid on the history of football tactics which is more interesting than it sounds. I'm actually interested in football tactics. But apart from that it covers lots of colourful personalities and social and political history. I also read…
Continued from My World Cups: Introduction I've spent my life regretting that I missed the iconic one and only time England won the world cup - 4-2 in 1966 at London's Wembley stadium against West Germany. I was too young (just turned 2 at the time of the 1966 final) and we lived in Africa with no TV. What a shame I'd been born in time but missed it. My parents moved to Kenya in the early 1960s as…
The eleventh post of My Top Tracks When I was doing A levels at my local college in the early '80s the were two groups of students that hung out in the common room. One was the trendy types into Culture Club and so on with floppy fringes and fashionable clothes. The others were the weed-smoking hippies. I was in the latter group, hair down to my stomach and long heavy coats. But I got on with both…
On the book Half-Earth Socialism , an advocacy of a utopian ecological society that can stop the catastrophe of climate change. Lots of big problems afflict humans and other life on Earth. I was born in the 1960s, and this feels like the worst period in my country and globally I've lived through. But amidst fascism in mainstream politics, genocide, war, and many other problems, one hangs over all…
These are some of my favourite albums I listened to in 2025; not all I listened to, just some highlights for me. Quite a few were new releases in 2025, but not all by any means. I use the music streaming app Qobuz which doesn't have any 'wrapped' or 'most listened to' features (I like that it doesn't) (more on Qobuz below ). So, I don't have a record of what I listened to. This is just from memory…
The tenth post on My Top Tracks I hated my very conservative school . At age 16 the other pupils all went on to the sixth form except, I think, one other person who left education altogether and me who left to do my A levels elsewhere. I went to the local further education college where things were more relaxed and less reactionary. When I finished my A levels I was elected as President of the…
On two books I read in 2025 by Fenner Brockway, pacifist, socialist, and anti-colonialist. Fenner Brockway, Towards Tomorrow To return to the High Wycombe theme from the Martin O'Neill book outlined in Books I Read in 2025 Part 1 , I met Fenner Brockway in December 1982. When I say 'met', we both spoke at a demonstration, him aged 94, me a long-haired 18-year-old. I was a member of a peace camp…
Continued from Books I Read in 2025 Part 1 Fenner Brockway, Towards Tomorrow See separate post on this book . Jan Gradvall, The Book of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover I live in Brighton, UK, and often go to the Dome , the venue where ABBA won the Eurovision song contest in 1974 with Waterloo . I was 10 and very into pop music then, so suspect I must have watched this on TV. When visitors come to…
Spies, detectives, and terrorists; westerns and Native American life; war and violence; gangs and prisoners; animals and humans; rebels and resistance; women and feminism; autobiography and memoir; racism and sectarianism; music and pop stars; football and footballers. Ernest Hemingway, Men without Women I think I've read and often re-read most of Hemingway's books, some more than twice. This is a…
Communism and leftists; change and alternatives; colonialism and development; spies and terrorists; psychoanalysis and grief; crime and heroes; climate and sustainability; poverty and survival; football and footballers . 2021? I've been putting together a blog post on books I read in 2025. It prompted me to delve into what I read in 2021. So far, this blog only goes back to 2022 on books I've read…
The 9th post of My Top Tracks I was depressed as a teenager. Who wasn't? There were probably some hormones going around. But for me it was mainly about society and circumstances. I lived in a suburban-feeling small town where most people seemed most concerned about having a neatly clipped lawn and a spotless clean car. Sundays were devoted to achieving these ends. It seemed stupid to me. I sang Mr…
This is the 8th post on My Top 100 Tracks I had an oud . It's a Middle-Eastern lute-like instrument. Roundabout 2000 or so I was given one as a gift. There are various types and mine was an Arabic oud from Egypt. I meant to learn how to play it. I can play the guitar at a very basic level, so thought that would help me get started. But I had enough on my plate as a head of department at my…
This is the seventh post of My Top 100 Tracks When Patti Smith has come up in conversations in the past and people have said 'Oh, yeah, Because the Night, I love that song', I've always felt superior and sneery. It's her most commercially successful song, but she wrote lots of other great ones, less poppy and amazing. In fact, she didn't even write this one (I thought). But when I made my list of…
The sixth post of My Top 100 Tracks I swim 3 times a week. It's about the only physical or sporting activity I'm any good at. I had lessons through my childhood so know roughly what you're supposed to do. Because of a bad back, swimming is the best form of exercise for me and, due to hypertension, the doctor says I should exercise vigorously several times a week. It's what happens when you get…
I first went to see Reading play football in the 1972-3 season aged just 8. They were in the 4th division, now League 2. We lived in Tilehurst in Reading and my dad took me and my brother to home matches. Sometimes my mum came too which was unusual. There weren't many women at the games let alone much in the way of families attending. Clubs setting up family areas later was a way of tackling this.…
Here is what Ina wrote about her Auntie Edie who she stayed with in summers in Newburgh in her childhood. There is a bit of overlap with what she wrote elsewhere about Uncle George and Newburgh , but also new things. Edith Mark‘s father was from Yorkshire, her mother from Ireland. She had a brother, Leslie, who lived in Bangor, N. Ireland, and ran a sports shop. She also had a sister, Dorothy…
My mum, Ina, when she was about 60, wrote an account of her childhood, 'Ina's Story' which I have posted here . Later in her life she wrote more about Newburgh in Scotland where she spent her summers in the late 1940s and '50s. The rest of the year she was at boarding school in Swansea while her parents were away as missionaries in South America. She wrote two later pieces about her Uncle George…
The fifth post on My 100 Top Tracks I listen to jazz more than any genre. Probably more than 60/70% of my listening is jazz. This isn't reflected in my top 100 tracks which are as much a timeline to my life as anything, and rock and pop dominated this from the 1970s onwards. But a few years ago I was talking to my son-in-law about music and I said I listened mostly to jazz, soul, and blues. He…
The fourth post on My 100 Top Tracks . Midnight Train to Georgia was an early release on the Buddah label after Gladys Knight switched to them from Motown. It's an obvious song of hers to choose but I love it. Another train song . A guy goes to LA to pursue stardom but the place proves 'too much for the man' and 'he couldn't make it'. So he decides to go back to Georgia (as it happens, Gladys…
Separately from her notebook containing 'Ina's Story' about her childhood, including one part on Newburgh where she spent her summer holidays as a child, my mum wrote, much later I think, about Newburgh again, specifically 37 High Street. Her and her sisters went to a boarding school in Swansea spending summers in Newburgh with their aunt and uncle while their parents were away being missionaries…
Continued from Part 8 In this final part 9 Ina talks about the golden moments and kindness she experienced in the summer holidays she spent in Newburgh in Fife with Auntie Edie and Uncle George in the many years her parents were abroad. Golden Moments Most golden moments took place in Scotland. I loved the landscape, the fields, moors, hills/burns and so on. Some supporters of my parents' mission…
Continued from Part 7 In this part Ina goes on to talk about books and music. As to the place of books in my life - how they became so important to me I don't know. They were not readily accessible - there was a small library in which there were very old, dark, hard-backed books. One I remember was called 'Eric or Little by Little'. I remember getting comics called The School Friend - I think we…
Continued from Part 6 In this part Ina goes on to talk about politics and social issues . But politics were never mentioned really. In the VIth form in General Studies we discussed current affairs as we were told about them from time to time. The Head might bring in a newspaper - I think the Telegraph. We clubbed together in the VIth and bought a paper, I think. Maybe the Daily Express - Giles was…
Continued from Part 5 . In this part Ina discusses the role of religion in her childhood . Religion was the thing. We had prayers every evening. When I was proficient enough I played the piano for the hymn we would sing. I also took week about with Joy playing at assemblies. To alleviate boredom we would do tricks. A certain sign would indicate we would miss out a verse. We would all stop together…
Continued from Post 4 After discussing her family in the last part Ina goes back to talking about Swansea and boarding school. We did our share of the domestic work. There was a duty roster. There was 'carry-in'. This was waiting on the tables - simply bringing in the trays of food to the dining room. We swept the dining room afterwards. We washed the cutlery and dried it - about 60 place settings…
Continued from Part 3 on Swansea and Boarding school. Ina digresses from her account of school in Swansea to talk more about her family, before going back to Swansea in the next part. Really I only met my sister [ LM, Beth ] after meals when we would look at the letter board. Our parents did write regularly, our mother in her big scrawl and our father would type. He taught himself several skills -…
Continued from Part 2 Going to Britain . Ina goes on to talk about her life at boarding school in Swansea after her parents had left her and Beth there and gone back to Peru with Agnes and Ruth. Because Beth was a year older she had a room with girls of her age and I with girls of my age. Dorothy and Grace Trotman, twins, whose parents were missionaries in Bolivia had just started there. Dorothy…
Continued from Part 1 Peru . This part covers Ina's arrival in Britain, from Peru, in 1945 Going home To get back to Britain we had to make our way to Buenos Aires. This must have taken several months. We went on a boat across Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, the highest lake in the world. We stayed in a place called Flores - in Uruguay or Paraguay? [ LM - it is in Uruguay ]. We stayed with missionaries…
See Introduction and Contents . This first part of 'Ina's Story: as I remember it' covers my mum's first years in Peru from 1938 when she was born there to 1945 when she came to Britain. I was born in Huancayo on December 1st 1938. My parents frequently commented on my being born on such an illustrious date – it is Peru’s independence day. Evidently, I was given some sort of token – I think a coin…
This is an introduction and contents to the story of my mum's childhood as told by her. This introduction is by me. A few months ago I was rummaging around in a cupboard in my parents' house. I was looking for photo albums I could get out and look through with them. I came across a small blue exercise book. I opened it and saw the title 'Ina's Story: as I remember it'. It was an account of my…
The third post on My Top 100 Tracks . When I recently told my partner this was one of my top 100 favourite tracks of all time and played it to her she laughed. I think it was a bit unexpected to her that I would like a song like this. She came along when I was in my 50s so had missed my earlier years of music listening. But she wasn't the only one surprised someone like me would like a track like…
Watching your team score a winning goal in the last minute of a match is great. But try leaving Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp, and Amazon all in one day. That's what I did recently. That feels really good. Actually, I became inactive on most of these platforms a while ago and switched over to Mastodon (an alternative to X and Facebook) and Pixelfed (an alternative to Instagram). I put a note on…
The second post on My Top 100 Tracks . Explosive. That's how this track's often described. One hit on the drum and then the song dives straight in fast and direct. It was released in 1978 as the opening track of The Clash's second album Give 'Em Enough Rope. I was 14. I saw someone say : "It's one of the greatest album opening tracks ever recorded. It's like a punch in the face". When Give 'Em…
The first post on My Top 100 Tracks . 'Do Anything you Wanna Do' was released in 1977. I was 13. The band was called 'The Rods' at that point. I know it's a cliché, but it blew my mind. Often thought of as a punk band, there was a definite element of punk to them (at least in the context of those days). They were popular with punks and played support to punk bands, like The Ramones, or were…
Introduction to My Top Tracks and, further down, outline of Alternatives to Spotify I listen to music about 3 or 4 hours a day and a lot of that time not in the background, but listening to it only and doing nothing else. It's been at the centre of my life since I was a teenager (as for many other people). Of course, I also listen while I'm doing other things and out and about. I love train…
Race and gender identity; racism and colonialism; family and outsiders; social dislocation; police and thieves; environment and nature; war, violence, and survival; spies, footballers, and ordinary lives . I thought I'd keep on reading social/political academic books when I retired from my sociology academic job in the summer but so far I haven't. I've read fiction and easy-to-read non-fiction in…
Pessimism need not be a block to action and change. It can be a spur to them. I taught environmentalism throughout my career as a university lecturer in sociology. I wrote a book about it published in 1994 . There was plenty of cause for concern then. But also reasons for optimism. The debate on climate change was more open, whether it was happening and whether it was human-made. But, if you trust…
I joined my local library when I moved to Brighton (UK) in 1987. I didn't go that often. I would take my kids now and then when they were little and they would choose books. But I had a 50-hour-a-week job and the two small kids. The library was half an hour away and it wasn't easy to find 90 minutes to walk there, look about, and then get back. So I didn't go for myself very much. In fact, I…
About 40 years ago, as an undergraduate student, I wrote some dissertations that were probably better than anything I wrote as a professional academic, admittedly a low bar. I wrote this one when I was 21. The film academic Colin MacCabe published an essay criticising realist novels and films for having a form that prevented them from being politically progressive, effectively arguing for more…
On communism in theory, attempts at communism in practice, and the implications for socialism. I wrote a book about Alternative Societies . It was about ways of organising society differently to how we do now (a blog summarising its themes is here ). Someone said I should write another one on the same themes and examples for a broader audience. To be honest, I felt pretty booked out. But I thought…
In 2024 I retired from being a university lecturer. I wanted something to keep me writing, but not full-on academic writing. A blog seemed to fit the bill. Blogging and empowerment When blogging first emerged in the 1990s I thought it was amazing. Until that point if you wanted to get written words out in public you had to get corporate or organised news or a political platform to publish your…
Continued from Alternative Email 2 . This part looks at some other email providers that I did not discuss in the 'shortlist' in Alternative Email 2, alternative calendars, changing email, picking up email, other alternative internet possibilities, and finally a summary of alternative email providers discussed in part 2 on the criteria I outlined in part 1 . Other alternative email providers I…
Continued from Alternative Email 1 which focused on criteria for alternative email. This part looks at alternative email providers. Alternative email providers In this part I am focusing on alternatives that, on my criteria from the last post, seemed the best to me when I was looking for a new email provider: Runbox, Disroot, Riseup, Proton, Tuta, Posteo, and Autistici/Inventati. Some others…
This is the first of 3 posts on alternative email; alternative to big tech email like Gmail, Hotmail etc. Below is a list of contents followed by an introduction. Contents Alternative Email 1 Introduction Widening ethical criteria for alternative email beyond (but including) privacy Ethical criteria for assessing alternative email Alternative Email 2 Alternative email providers Alternative Email 3…
Continued from Sussex Stories 7 This is the 8th and final part of these Sussex Stories 1990-2024. Zoom: COVID-19 and lockdowns When COVID hit in 2020, VC (Vice Chancellor, university CEO) Tickell incredibly pushed on with face-to-face learning even though it was clear this was putting lives at risk. I don't know how he justified it. It was unbelievable. In my department one member of staff led the…
Continued from Sussex Stories 6 More time I've always felt on the borders of mainstream capitalist and bureaucratic society, able to have one foot inside but unable to avoid one foot outside too. I've never felt comfortable in or out, with the balance more in participation than exclusion. But as universities became more neoliberal and authoritarian and there was more and more complicity in this ,…
Continued from Sussex Stories 5 So, when you're near me, darling, can't you hear me, S.O.S Many universities were following Universities UK (UUK) guidance and rewriting staff statutes in their constitutions, and Sussex followed suit. After I did a bit of research on the UUK website it became clear that following UUK guidance was behind a lot of Farthing's reforms. They suggested reforms and he…
Continued from Sussex Stories 4 The dream is over The interdisciplinary structures had gone. But more was to come. The university motto 'Be Still and Know' became rarely seen in any public face of the university. There was very little 'Be Still' in the post-2007 period. 'Knowing' also went on the back burner. Education and knowledge were a low priority compared to rationalisation, money, and…
Continued from Sussex Stories 3 New appointments and equal opportunities: this is the real world I said the university I arrived at was 'beautiful' in the early years. But it was not beautiful for everyone. The student body was disproportionately white and middle-class. In the workforce, women were crammed at the bottom of the scale, in precarious jobs, with few in senior positions. There were few…
Continued from Sussex Stories 2 New Labour, New Britain In May 1994 the Labour leader John Smith died. I bumped into my colleague Stephen Driver on the stairs at work very soon after and we were speculating on who would be the new leader. I said Gordon Brown, but he said no no it'll be Blair. Stephen left Sussex but I bumped into him soon after at a Ralph Miliband memorial conference at the LSE, I…