- 18 April 2014
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Yesterday evening I went to a concert at Wigmore Hall that rates right up there amongst the best I have ever attended. The last time I raved about a concert it was something entirely different; Leonard Cohen at the O2 Arena performing for three glorious hours to an appreciative audience of 20,000 people. Last night, The English Concert, playing Vivaldi and Pergolesi for 90 minutes to an audience of 550, trumped even Leonard Cohen! Why am I bowled over […]
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- 24 December 2013
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I have never been quite sure what the expression human nature really means. The ‘nature’ bit seems to suggest something built into the system, something instinctive, something fixed and immutable, something impervious to change. As a psychologist, I’m uncomfortable with ideas that challenge choice and free will. I’d far rather believe that we are free to choose our actions. I once wrote a song called Choose where the first verse went: Choose, choose You can choose What to do […]
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- 15 November 2013
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I’m vice-chairman of a small charity, Prisoners Education Trust (PET). Basically, we believe that learning and education have the power to enrich lives and, in the case of prisoners, to make it less likely that they will reoffend when released. At present reoffending rates are totally unacceptable; 60% of prisoners are back in prison after two years. It costs approximately £40 thousand pounds to keep someone in prison (more if you add in all sorts of other associated costs involved […]
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- 3 November 2013
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I’ve now clocked up six months as a London resident. Confusing life in London with my previous life in Maidenhead, where we lived for over 42 years, is about as likely as confusing Oxford (lots of mature trees, all straight) with the Isle of Man (few trees, all bent by prevailing westerly winds). I moved from Oxford to the Island when I was 13 years old and as a consequence have always found it easy to sort my childhood memories […]
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- 30 September 2013
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I have never been good at persisting. I give up too easily and move onto something else. I am a classic dabbler. I dabble at writing (a children’s story was abandoned after the first rejection from a published) and dabble at painting (I can go for weeks without touching my brushes). I have dabbled at making articulated wooden fish (a production run of only 30 before selling my bandsaw). I dabbled at learning to speak French (gave up – […]
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