If we’ve shared a workspace, you will know me for my appreciation of New Order, World War II knowledge and biscuit generosity. I’m a writer/sub-editor with a 30-year career that includes full-time positions at GQ, Motor Sport, Jack and Front, and freelance stints at Monocle, NME and The Guide (Guardian). I’ve wangled interviews with many of my heroes and written articles on many niche subjects such as electricity pylons and concrete lamp-posts. I’ve just finished a novel – a ghost yarn titled Brian Clough, Geoff Boycott, Peter O’Toole, Tony Wilson, Mark E Smith And Tim Healy In A Haunted House Near Carlisle, 1984.
GQ Icon: Bernard Sumner, GQ, 2012
One of the unsung architects of the Manchester sound, the Salford stalwart has influenced every major musical movement of the past 35 years. Whether pioneering post-punk with Joy Division, melding rock/dance with New Order, or blowing £1m on a nightclub, “Barney” was there. As his band limber up for an Olympic concert, GQ pays tribute to the straight man of Madchester
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A Menace to you, Rudy: The Specials’ Horace Panter and his Beano art, British Ideas Corporation, 2018
This year, The Beano celebrates its 80th birthday and to mark the occasion, Horace Panter, bass player with The Specials – and also one of Britain’s finest exponents of pop art and fine art – was invited to paint a series of compositions to be exhibited.
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Reasons to be cheerful: an interview with Jemima Dury, Guilfest, 2024
Dad sent me out to buy a car one day in a very, very Flash Harry sort of rock’n’roll way. Just said, “Go and find a car.” And I was like, “OK.” I came back with a giant, pearlised-green Ford Granada. The front seats were like giant sofas. It was automatic and I drove it around London for about a year.
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