I love the work of Italian actor and director Nanni Moretti, that subtly animated stillness he possesses. I could happily spend my time watching him eat pasta, drive a scooter or simply sit on a bench doing nothing very much at all. So why did his most recent film, Quiet Chaos, out this month on… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Writings
Bury the good news
Discarded needles, enforced mediocrity, petty bullying, too much political correctness, not enough Jesus or competitive sport: New Statesman readers with children in state schools will be surprised – but perhaps not that surprised – to hear that these are common features of our nation’s schools, at least according to our press and broadcasting media, few… Continue Reading
A message to the Facebook fraternity/sisterhood.
Here’s an interesting looking group you could join………. Continue Reading
What I learned from a hundred seventeen year olds last Thursday
A while ago, I realised that one of the tricks – or is it paradoxes? – of speaking well in public is not to be afraid of your audience, to approach the whole encounter with an open hearted curiosity and excitement; to be interested in who your audience are and what might emerge in the… Continue Reading
No quick fix for the soul
This week I was at the House of Commons, chairing a meeting for The Maya Centre, an Islington based multi ethnic voluntary organisation that offers psychodynamic therapy to women on low incomes, work that is clearly making a huge difference. Despite its reputation as home of the rich and cool, Islington has many pockets of… Continue Reading
One of Us nominated for British Book Award
One of Us is one of six books on the shortlist for the Waterstone’s New Writer of the Year – a prize aimed at identifying ‘literary stars of the future’ – at this year’s Galaxy British Book Awards. The nominations were announced today, March 10. The award is decided by popular vote and voting lines… Continue Reading
Men, women and the political novel
To the Bath literature festival earlier this week, to speak with Roma Tearne, author of two vivid, wonderfully told and swift moving novels about both her native Sri Lanka and life as a recent immigrant in Britain, to which she came, aged ten, fleeing the civil war in her country. I am at the festival… Continue Reading
Finally, a “young lady” answers back…..
Below, a flavour of the kind of response I attract whenever I write any political piece, particularly about education. I will protect the privacy of the man who wrote it, who mounted a robust and highly personal defence of grammar schools, but I will take the liberty of quoting the more personal parts, that relate… Continue Reading
In today’s Guardian…………
Today, local councils will send out offers of places to all children about to enter secondary school in England. With reports of increasing numbers of parents failing to get their first choice of schools, and pressure on the state from recession-hit parents deserting private education, National Offers Day – as it has come to be… Continue Reading
Paperback reviews of One of Us
Read the Guardian review, published today, here: and the Independent’s review of the book published last month. Continue Reading
Latest writing
THE CRISIS OF THE MERITOCRACY
The crisis of the meritocracy: Britain’s transition to mass education since the Second World War PETER MANDLER, 2020 Oxford: Oxford University Press 361pp, hardback, £25, ISBN 9780198840145 Cambridge historian Peter Mandler has a fundamentally optimistic story to tell about the growth of universal education in Britain over the last seventy years and one can sense… Continue reading…
Latest news & events
A Cold War Tragedy
Melissa will be in conversation with Anne Sebba about her new book, ‘Ethel Rosenberg – A Cold War Tragedy.’ Weds 15th September 2021, 5-6pm, in the Robert Graves Tent at the Wimbledon Book Festival. More information here. Continue reading…
