The lockdown list

The pandemic was giving everybody – rich and poor, young and old – a dose of isolation. And I was a veteran of isolation. I knew things would get worse, but eventually better. I knew many people would suffer and most of their suffering would go unseen. The main thing was not to despair.

Bowie

It took me several years to get David Bowie. Even now I'm not sure I do. Perhaps because my teenage years in the late eighties coincided with a lean period in his career (between China Girl and Tin Machine), or because the gaudy otherworldliness of Ziggy Stardust seemed almost calculated to alienate an achingly self-conscious … Continue reading Bowie

Chippings from the quarry 3: The last-chance saloon (A day at Glasgow Drugs Court)

I originally wrote this for the Open Justice UK blog, set up in February 2012 to revive the dwindling art of court reporting. It's an excellent initiative, please go and look at it. In a windowless, low-ceilinged courtroom in the basement of Glasgow Sheriff Court, a quiet experiment in justice is taking place. The drugs … Continue reading Chippings from the quarry 3: The last-chance saloon (A day at Glasgow Drugs Court)