“Free” lance

It’s generally thought that the earliest written usage of the word “Freelance” was in Walter Scott’s historical novel Ivanhoe, written in 1820: I offered Richard the service of my Free Lances, and he refused them—I will lead them to Hull, seize on shipping, and embark for Flanders; thanks to the bustling times, a man of … Read more

We stayed on holiday by mistake

Sometime in 2012, my wife and I and our two boys (aged 5 and 8) moved from Bath — our home of more than a decade — to a tiny shack in the woods in North Devon. We’d been happy in Bath: we’d started two new lives with the births of our kids, founded a business and a digital … Read more

Letter to Scott Mann MP about the Syrian crisis

My very lovely wife just wrote this to Scott Mann, our local MP. I read it, nodded so much my head nearly fell off and asked her if I could post it on my blog. She said yes. Dear Mr Mann, It is a year ago that I contacted you about my concerns about UK … Read more

Kids own too many gadgets

I’ve been resisting writing this, as I know it’ll get up some people’s noses. I know there’s a danger I’ll come across as fairly sanctimonious – and definitely an Old Victorian Arse. But you know, along with getting a bit older is a certain dontgiveashitness, so here goes. My contention is this: things have gone badly … Read more

Letting kids on the web

I’ve got kids – they’re 7 and 10 – and they’re at that age when they are just starting to spend a bit more time online. The last few months have seemed like a good time to look around and see what other parents are doing, and make some decisions about how best to approach this. The first observation I have … Read more

The life project

My good friend @bealers just posted “Make life a side project” and it got me thinking. My first reaction was something along the lines of shutup-you-crazy-person but now I’m veering slightly more to ah-i-think-i-kinda-see-what-you-mean. But not much. The main thing that I reacted to was this notion of “sideness”. Putting life (yeah, we need to talk about what … Read more

Childproofing relationships

So this piece: Who comes first, your partner or your kids? [edit: original link broken, WayBack link here] did the rounds yesterday. Go read it if you haven’t then come back… I was struck by the negative comments to the piece – and also the fact that people clearly seem to think this is an OUTRAGEOUS … Read more

How long writing takes

For a long, long time, The Bone People was my favourite work of fiction. I haven’t been back to it for a long while, but found a battered copy again recently and have started it again. As I started it I was wondering whether it’d fit into that “I enjoyed it when I was a teenager but … Read more

Printing is broken.

In fact, as the ever-spot-on Oatmeal says: Printers were sent from Hell to make us miserable. I own a printer. I’d rather not, and I run a mostly paper-free life, but there are still occasions when I need to print stuff – end of year stuff, the odd invoice, a letter or two. Every single … Read more

New tune – Seascape

Inspired by the beautiful flat seas round here at the moment. Written and produced on the amazing NanoStudio.