Author: richardmapes

In 31 Songs, Nick Hornby writes about the songs that influenced his life, and he kicks off with a controversial choice: Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen. I’ve talked before about the things you haven’t...

What qualifies you to be a teacher? Well, your teaching qualification, obviously. But, I mean, apart from a bit of paper with your name embossed on it, what quality must a teacher possess that...

Nature has some interesting symbiotic relationships: birds that clean the ticks off elephants; or clown fish living in sea anemones. The dung beetle is a hard one to fathom, however. I imagine, when all...

Well, we’ve done it. We’re out of the EU. Opinion is divided as to whether we’ve made the right move or not. What is abundantly clear is that Westminster is deeply out of touch...

In America, Republicans have just rejected a bill to deny access to firearms for suspected terrorists. In a world where, apparently, there is so much danger of a terrorist attack that we must surrender...

We did a triathlon at the weekend. Well, I say we. Sue, Alex, Simon and Roger did a triathlon. I stood at the side and cheered. I stood for a very long time, and...

As many of you know, I was on the radio the other day promoting Three Men On Tour. I’ve never been on the radio before. Well, that’s not quite true. My cousin once interviewed...

As a child, I used to be enjoy getting my hair cut. I quite liked just letting my mind wander while someone fussed over my head. Then I hit puberty and I started worrying...

The modern world is a strange one. We have more and more and own less and less. That CD collection you used to have, the one which filled the spare room and your partner was...

I don’t get recycling. Not the need for it. That’s obvious. If something is a finite resource, it makes sense to get as much use as possible out of it before throwing it away....