I guess you had to be there

When writing about any of my passions – sport, politics, literature, travel, music and the likes – I always seek to gain some perspective, lest I fire off an ill considered rant that leaves me open to justifiable criticism. Of course, I’ve reached a stage in life where I find there’s an awful lot of

Underneath the Arches

When Edinburgh’s rich deserted the old town for the Georgian splendours of the New Town at the start of the nineteenth century, the artisans occupied their original tenement homes, but the poorest in the city remained in the fetid tunnels and caves underneath the old town’s bridges. Excavation tells us that they existed on a

Walking alone

For me, Hillsborough is kind of personal. I spent 12 years of my youth on Merseyside, my mother was a Liverpudlian and most of my friends and family in the area supported Liverpool or Everton –such ‘ecumenism’ has always been possible in that city. Although I supported lowly Southport through the sixties, I often visited