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 SportJack 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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The generator game: a visit to Drax Power Station, World Petroleum Council Guide: Biofuels, 2016

Drax is an RAF navigator’s dream, dominating the scenery. Once inside the perimeter fence, the enormity of the dozen 374-feet-high natural-draft cooling towers and 850-feet-high reinforced-concrete chimney – the highest industrial chimney in the world when built – is overwhelming.

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