The Oxford Times | Gray Matter

My madeleine moment with crisps

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:12:48 +0000

While it possesses none of the romantic appeal of Proust’s madeleine, a cheese and onion crisp — actually, a whole packet of crisps — remains for me an always reliable conduit to the past.

An odd exchange in the style of Pinter himself

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:15:13 +0000

"is it a quarter to nine or a quarter to ten?”

Michel Strauss's memories of boozy times with Oxford's fast set

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:07:24 +0000

One of the principal delights of my recent cruise with Voyages to Antiquity was the company of so many sympathetic fellow passengers. Almost the first I met, on a coach trip from Sharm El Sheikh to Luxor, were Michel Strauss and his charming wife Sally. With my natural nosiness — but let us say journalistic curiosity — it took little time for me to learn of Michel’s strong Oxford links.

Disaster not reported in nautical style

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:28:08 +0000

Still on the subject of shipwrecks, the disaster involving the Costa Concordia was followed by a stern dressing down to careless journalists in the letters column of The Times from Vice Admiral Sir Christopher Morgan. He complained of the media’s failure to employ “proper nautical language” in stories on the matter. “For instance vessels do not crash into rocks, they run aground. A vessel the size of the Costa Concordia is a ship not a boat [all cruise vessels are, regardless of size, I was told by experts on my recent trip to Egypt and Lebanon], and when severely damaged they do not tilt, they list.”

Three shipwreck plays soon on the Stratford stage

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:23:47 +0000

Many actors airily claim never to read reviews, while most critics mischievously choose not to believe them. But Charlie Keegan does read reviews. He read one of mine about him and wasn’t happy with what I said. Unusually, he wrote to tell me so — a first for me, and for him, he said.

In defence of the apostrophe

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:53:08 +0000

I received a cheery email on Monday from Mel Harris, the press officer of Waterstones. She wrote: “I’ve been away for the best part of a year on maternity leave, so just wanted to renew contact and jog your memory (er. . . and mine!) as to the many wonderful ways Waterstones press office can provide a variety of book-related content and competitions to help fill shopping, lifestyle, arts and book pages.”

Uncredited cause of pub closures

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:50:38 +0000

These are tough times for British pubs, which are said by the Campaign for Real Ale to be closing at the rate of 16 a week — 2,000 of them over the past two years.

Putting the boot in to fine comic effect

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:47:44 +0000

I learned of the death of Ronald Searle while reading a book graced by one of his elegant cartoons on its cover. This was Roger Lewis’s What Am I Still Doing Here? My Years As Me, which was published last year by Coronet at £20 but which I bought from Waterstones for half that. It is the book I have enjoyed most so far this year, with the exception of Mr Lewis’s Seasonal Suicide Notes, of 2009, which I ordered immediately afterwards, confident I would like it too. It cost me one penny (plus £2.80 post and packing) through Amazon. Can someone explain what seems to me the lunatic economics of this?

The philosopher who fought bulls

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:03:07 +0000

I meet all sorts in my local pub, The Punter, on Osney Island — including, shortly before Christmas, a chap who has variously been an Oxford student of biology and philosophy, an actor and a bullfighter.

My reference to rabbis was misunderstood

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:00:44 +0000

My brief reference to rabbis on the radio in Gray Matter on January 5 provoked anger among some of those to whom any mention of the Jewish religion is a cause for direst suspicion.