Talk to enough literary publishers and you could be forgiven for thinking that they must sit, besuited, listening to dirges on their 1970s radiograms as they squat in cellar offices pondering, with funereal solemnity, the future of serious literature. …

Books down, computers off – now is the time to get out and pick some sloes. Sloe gin is an excellent preventer of colds over the winter, so you are only helping the health economy by making and drinking lots of it. 1 litre (2 pints) sloes 1 litre (2 pi …

When I was a young art student, most of our progressive ideals were fed by an understanding that we were somehow at war with the academics. I guess this was a kind of nineteenth century art lesson, one which had been fully adopted within those commerci …

Fried pie, anyone? Since leaving Cambridge University Press my body appears to have unhatched a plan to make its bulk fill the home office. Like I need to be cuboid, rather than cuddly human shaped. Now, the dining room we converted to Home Orifice is …

Sales What are sales for? Sales are what we crave. They seem to torment us Time and time over. They are to be driven by: How can we live without sales? Ah, solving that question Leaves the Board of Directors More desperate each month Addressing the sto …