Media and lifestyle critics have been engaged in a frenzy of comment these past couple of weeks over the film ‘I don’t know how she does it’, based on the 2002 bestseller book of the same title by Allison Pearson. The film stars Sarah Jessica Parker as the heroine Kate Reddy, who balances (or doesn’t) …
Tag: making a diference
Sep 11
The valuing of fatherhood
Fathers who would like an uplifting read should take a look at Dylan Jones’ comment piece on The Times website. Entitled ‘Men who juggle: School runs, nappies, long hours at work’, the article is in effect a piece in praise of fatherhood, recognising the value that fathers have in their children’s lives, and celebrating the …
Aug 13
Technodelic Comedy Show: astonishing creativity and human resilience
Probably the most extraordinary show we saw at the Edinburgh Fringe this year was an incredibly fast-moving extravaganza of electronic music, video projection and light, with a futuristic feel, and an interaction between dancers and projected images that was timed absolutely to perfection. It was billed as a Comedy Show, and there was a light …
Aug 11
Edinburgh Fringe: not a supermodel in sight. A celebration of normal people.
On Tuesday I had a conversation with a journalist ahead of the A Level results which come out next week, and we ended up talking about the sexualised imagery of girls and women in our society, which is a subject that I feel very strongly about, and which I have spoken out about several times …
Aug 04
The risk of not taking risks
A quietly uplifting article about Forest Schools appeared in the pages of this week’s Wednesday’s Times. If you can’t read it online, then do at least look at this website about the phenomenon of Forest Schools – this model of outdoor schools, relatively common in Scandinavia, is being adopted by a number of schools in …
Jul 30
Opt-in not opt-out – why we need to press ISPs to block porn
A short article on page 4 of Thursday’s Times sent me scurrying to find out the truth behind the words. The article claimed that tens of thousands of parents have blocked their children’s access to suicide and self-harm websites on home computers, using TalkTalk’s relatively new HomeSafe service, which requires all new users to set …
Jul 27
To my friend Sue …
I climbed a hill last night – a real hill, not a metaphorical one – up past our local white horse carved into the chalk, with beautiful views over Wiltshire. The sun was setting, and this lent a soft red glow to the distance, where 4 hot air balloons drifted in tiny silhouette. A low …
Jul 26
Too Big To Fail? Could women have saved Wall Street?
Part of the joy of the summer is being able to catch up on reading and thinking, and I am two-thirds of the way through Andrew Ross Sorkin‘s epic book about the 2008 battle to save Lehman Brothers and, by extension, the entire financial sector: ‘Too Big To Fail’. It is a great read, and …
Jul 23
Don’t forget the Bailey Report …
The Bailey Report on the sexualisation and commercialisation of children’s lives was published just a month and a half ago, and was clear in stating that the world in which our children are living and growing up is over-sexualised, and we must do something about this. Early sexualisation has crept up on us, and the …
Jul 19
Being a father
If you have the opportunity to read Tom Bickerby’s weekly column in Times 2 about living with a baby with Down’s Syndrome, then do. It is moving, not because it is over-emotional or deliberately intends to tug on the heartstrings, but because in documenting the practicalities, and in confronting the difficult feelings that can come …