Welcome to House With No Name. I write about everything from books and films to education, family and France.
What a peculiar day. The sun is blazing and the beach is packed with holidaymakers. As they saunter along clutching ice creams, buckets and spades they seem oblivious to the excitement building at the far end of town. The scene is very different outside Swanage railway station, where a gaggle of teenage girls have clambered on to the wall to gawp at their heartthrob. A few yards away, a seasoned ...keep reading
A rush of celebrities are following in David Walliams’s brilliant footsteps and writing children’s books. In recent months Olympic cyclist Chris Hoy and former Home and Away star Isla Fisher have thrown their hats into the literary ring. The Big Biscuit Bike-Off is the third in Hoy’s Flying Fergus series about a boy with a big imagination and a passion for bikes while Isla Fisher’s Marge in Charge is the ...keep reading
If I was in charge of a primary school library I’d make sure we had a copy of every single book by Mick Manning and Brita Granström. The award-winning pair have produced children’s books on all manner of subjects, including Shakespeare, Dickens and Darwin. My favourite up until now was The Beatles, which tells the story of the Fab Four through a series of captivating cartoons, drawings and text. I thought ...keep reading
A career in journalism can take you to some extraordinary places. My highlights include interviewing Sir Richard Branson 40,000 feet above the Atlantic on Virgin’s first flight to Miami, sitting in a Bedouin tent in the middle of the Saudi desert with Prince Charles and Princess Diana and driving across the Equator in a battered old Land Rover. Last week was another example of the eclectic nature of journalism. After ...keep reading
Today is the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme. At 7.28 this morning the nation fell silent, commemorating the moment on July 1 1916 when British and Commonwealth soldiers were ordered to go over the top. It was the start of the bloodiest day in British military history and the beginning of a campaign that would claim one million casualties over four months. As I observed the ...keep reading
Today I’m delighted to be running an extract from a wonderful new novel – Carrying Albert Home by Homer Hickam. Marie Claire magazine has described Carrying Albert Home as a “must-read… a funny yet tragic tale of a husband and wife’s car journey across the US with Albert the alligator in tow.” The story has three key ingredients. A journey of 1,000 miles. An alligator on the back seat of the car. ...keep reading
What a horrible few days. I still can’t quite believe that the UK has done something so crazy. I’m shocked and devastated at the catastrophic decision made by the British electorate on Thursday. I keep hoping that the whole thing will turn out to be like Bobby Ewing’s “death” on Dallas – that we’ll wake up in a few days time and find that the whole sorry mess is a ...keep reading
Sophie Conran lives in one of the most beautiful flats I’ve ever seen. The top three floors of a huge west London house, it has high ceilings, wonderful proportions and vast windows overlooking an elegant garden square. The most striking thing of all, though, is the way Sophie has decorated it. The Conrans are a stylish clan (her father is the designer and restaurateur Sir Terence Conran and her mother is ...keep reading
Like everyone else I know, I’m deluged with emails, newsletters and press releases from dawn till dusk. But there’s one that arrives at around noon each day that I always look forward to reading. Emerald Street is the daily email from Stylist magazine and it’s packed with great things – book reviews, fashion and beauty recommendations, restaurant reviews and links to thought-provoking features. I’m such a fan that as soon as I spotted that ...keep reading
Congratulations to Lisa McInerney, who has just won the 2016 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction with her first novel The Glorious Heresies. At an awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall at London’s Southbank Centre chair of judges Margaret Mountford presented McInerney with the £30,000 prize and the Bessie, a limited edition bronze figurine. Margaret Mountford gave a fascinating insight into the judging process. “After a passionate discussion around a very ...keep reading