Category Archives: Books Films, TV & Radio

University of the Nerd Age – the Talk Nerdy 2 Me feature

According to US young adult author John Green, of The Fault in our Stars fame, ‘Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it’.* In fact, nerdiness is a state of mind for some, and you can include Lancashire … Continue reading

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The Crumpsall Kid rides out – the Mike Harding interview

Veteran comic, folk singer-songwriter, author, broadcaster and playwright Mike Harding is set to visit 17 small theatres and arts clubs in May. From Keswick to Barnsley via Pocklington, Mike has a busy few weeks ahead of him, and it’s not … Continue reading

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Cleaning up with Crissy Rock – from Liverpool to Peterlee, via Benidorm

Award-winning actress, stand-up comic and best-selling author Crissy Rock is in a Teeside tailback, and has clearly forgotten our 11am phone date. We go ahead anyway, while Crissy inches slowly along amid A19 amid traffic gridlock, ‘hands-free’ communication and backup satellite … Continue reading

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Time for Truth – the Rick Buckler interview

There have been insider accounts of the story of The Jam from various angles since Paul Weller called time on the band in late 1982. The first to made an impression on me – and I was barely 15 when … Continue reading

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Flying in the face of fashion – the Wayne Hemingway interview

This September, Vintage by the Sea returns to the Lancashire coast, aiming to build on last year’s successful event in Morecambe, one that attracted 40,000 visitors. The two-day festival will see the resort seafront and its landmark venues transformed, the … Continue reading

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Albania to Southport, via Brighton – with Attila the Stockbroker

It’s been some journey for Attila the Stockbroker, who publishes his autobiography Arguments Yard later this year, with little to suggest he’s slowing down. This is the radical performance poet and musician who toured East Germany four times before the … Continue reading

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Picture the poet, greet the griot – the Benjamin Zephaniah interview

When I spoke to Benjamin Zephaniah earlier this week, he was between a BBC radio interview and two days lecturing at West London’s Brunel University. The Lincolnshire-based dub poet, author and activist was then heading back for another radio broadcast … Continue reading

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Feeding fiction to the 5,000 – my World Book Day 2015 encounter

As I turned down Lowthorpe Road on my approach to Preston North End FC, a ‘cattlepiddler’ of high-vis jackets from a nearby school heading the same way suggested I was definitely in the right place. Close by, coaches belched out … Continue reading

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Cathy’s Adventures in Wonderland – the Cathy Cassidy interview

In my second feature centred around World Book Day 2015, I talked about Alice, libraries, music, the power of dreams and much more with best-selling children’s writer Cathy Cassidy, in an interview a few days before her WBD appearances at Preston … Continue reading

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Finally catching up with Frank Cottrell Boyce

I won’t hold back. Lots of people who know about my love for children’s lit will have heard me talk in glowing terms about the work of Frank Cottrell Boyce, the respected film scriptwriter who turned to fiction with such … Continue reading

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