Peter Robins

Saturday

Peter Robins

The great wall of Peckham

From our UK edition

The Peckham Peace Wall began life as a window: a long pane of shop glass in the front of Rye Lane’s newly refurbished branch of Poundland. During the riots last summer, the glass went, along with some of Poundland’s stock. The next morning, after the damage had been boarded up, a local theatre group covered the MDF with multicoloured Post-It notes, asking passers-by to fill them in with messages about why they loved Peckham. They called it, with impeccable logic, ‘The “Why We Love Peckham” Wall’. The notes filled to overflowing with affection and wounded civic pride. And they attracted reporters, who gave the display a more resonant name.

Friday

Peter Robins

Does the New Statesman need more cartoons? Yes!

From our UK edition

The current issue of the New Statesman leads off with a characteristically elegant and thorough feature by its deputy editor, Helen Lewis, on the fate of the political cartoon. In short, she fears for its future. The most poignant element, however, is a sidebar headed 'Cartoons in the New Statesman'. After reviewing the magazine's magnificent record in the area - Low! Vicky! First professional publication of Matt! - it winds around to the fact that a recent redesign eliminated the regular editorial cartoon: 'This was brought up by several of the cartoonists I interviewed.' Lewis then asks readers whether they miss it, and would like it back. Speaking as a New Statesman reader (and also a lapsed subscriber), I do, and I would.

Peter Robins

Graham Greene, Penguin and an old spelling mistake – Spectator blogs

From our UK edition

Mistakes will sometimes happen even in the best-run places. Pictured with this post, by way of proof, is a 1947 Penguin paperback of Graham Greene's The Lawless Roads, with the author's name misspelt on the spine. It's still common to talk of 'typographical errors', or typos, but back in 1947 there really was such a thing: it meant a mistake made by compositors at the printer, rather than by editors or designers. Probably this was one; certainly that is what someone will have tried to tell Allen Lane. These days any mistakes are definitely our fault - in the case of the printed Spectator, indeed, they are usually my fault, as chief sub. Which brings me to the other lesson of this book: how easily mistakes can be overlooked. I owned it for several years without ever seeing anything odd.

Friday

Peter Robins

Max Hastings, John Keegan and Falklands – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

In a notebook from Iceland in this week's magazine, Max Hastings pays tribute to the late Sir John Keegan with, among other things, a notable anecdote: 'One day at the beginning of 1986, he rang to gossip. I told him an implausible announcement was due that night: I was becoming editor of the Daily Telegraph. John instantly said: 'Can I be your defence correspondent?' He was half joking, but I seized on the notion: he became one of the new regime’s first appointments. He knew nothing about journalism, but adapted brilliantly to its discipline and indiscipline.' It's true that Keegan had little journalistic experience when took the Telegraph job. But he had already filed memorable writing for The Spectator, albeit under a different name.

Thursday

Peter Robins

Butlins and the return of the apostrophe – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

When you begin in subediting - the odd little craft of preparing other people's journalism for publication - certain things, or pairs of things, are drummed into you. St James' Park is where Newcastle United play; St James's Park is where the band of the Grenadier Guards play. Lloyds is the bank; Lloyd's is the insurance market. Pontin's has an apostrophe; Butlins doesn't. Unfortunately for subeditors, times change. St James' Park is now the Sports Direct Arena, although a similar deal has yet to be done for St James's Park. Lloyds has acquired TSB and been acquired, in turn, by the government. Pontins has emerged from financial difficulties, but it has done so minus an apostrophe. And Butlins? Butlins is now a difficult case.

Monday

Peter Robins

An anti-Labour leaflet in a pro-Labour font

From our UK edition

The leaflet pictured above landed on my doorstep in Peckham last week. It's the most interesting piece of election literature I've received this year — not because of its words, but because of its graphic design. If you read it closely, it appears to be an official communication from the Tories. The legally mandated imprint declares it to be ‘Promoted by Ian Sanderson on behalf of the Conservative Party, both of 30 Millbank, London SW1P 4DP’ — and that would accord with its strongly anti-Ken Livingstone text. If you don't examine it closely, however, it appears to be an official communication from Labour. The highlighted details are red, and all the text is set in the Labour party's favourite font, Neo Sans.

Saturday

Peter Robins

Booze and pews

From our UK edition

Home cinema equipment isn’t only for the home; in fact, home may not be the best place for it. If you really want to see the effect of a good digital projector and a set of surround-sound speakers, put them in the back room of a pub. An increasing number of publicans are doing so. There are at least four pub cinemas in my narrow slice of south London. They bring in regular custom on quiet nights, and can help landlords make good on the ferocious cost of their Sky Sports subscriptions. In the age of austerity and the £12 movie ticket, they make sense for viewers, too. My pub-cinemagoing has been done at the Montpelier, in Choumert Road, Peckham, which is at the more serious end of the phenomenon.

Friday

Peter Robins

How dangerous is cycling?

From our UK edition

Am I dicing with death every morning and evening? The Times would say so. I cycle to work, and, for the past two days, the Times has given over its front page to a campaign on cycling safety. The campaign is in most respects commendable — I like the specific proposals — but it emphasises the urgency of the issue by giving a very grim impression of the risks that cyclists face. ‘Britain’s riders are paying with their lives when they take to the roads,’ we are told. In fact, a bicycle is far from being the most dangerous way to get around. On the measure the Times uses — death rate by distance travelled — pedestrians are more likely to pay with their lives than cyclists are.

Thursday

Peter Robins

In and out of copyright

From our UK edition

New Year's Eve, among its other distinctions, is the date when copyright terms tend to expire: with the beginning of each new year, at least in this country, the public domain gets a little larger. In 2012, this has had a couple of effects in the world of digital bookchat. One was a flurry of insulting tweets directed at Stephen Joyce, who has policed quotation of his grandfather James's work with more vigour than many scholars would like.

Friday

Peter Robins

Local interest | 21 October 2011

From our UK edition

A pregnant 24-year-old from Carmarthen, north Wales, has pleaded guilty to attacking a parked police car with a rolling pin. She was reported to have explained her action as follows: "It was something I needed to do and I did it." (South Wales Evening Post) About fifty mourners, including one who flew in from Portugal, attended a New Orleans-style funeral for a stray cat in Walthamstow, north-east London. (Walthamstow Guardian, with thanks to Mark Wallace) Cat bones believed to be a 300-year-old charm to ward off witches have been found in the ceiling of a room at the Duke's Head Hotel, King's Lynn. (Eastern Daily Press) Burglars who broke into a house in Porthleven, near Helston, Devon, left with the contents of a six-year-old boy's piggy bank.

Friday

Peter Robins

Local interest | 14 October 2011

From our UK edition

A tourist from Crystal Palace, south London, rescued an 11-month-old boy from the River Yare, in Norfolk, after his pushchair was swept into the water by a freak gust of wind. (Eastern Daily Press) Four men have admitted possession and use of criminal property after finding £750,000 buried beneath a pigsty in Worcestershire. (Worcester News) A 12-week-old German Shepherd cross puppy has been found in a recycling bin in Lincoln Road, Basildon. (Echo, Southend) Police have told a bar in Stockton-on-Tees that, if it goes ahead with a plan to offer shots of spirits for 1p on Halloween, they will attempt to have its licence withdrawn. (Gazette, Middlesbrough) A teenager is being sought for the kidnap of a cat from a retirement home in Leyland, Lancashire.

Friday

Peter Robins

Local interest | 7 October 2011

From our UK edition

A former postman has stripped naked and superglued himself to a desk at the Job Centre in Bridlington, in protest at being refused disability benefit. (Yorkshire Post) Police stations in Leicestershire have been ordered to take down their flagpoles as a cost-saving measure. They will share a single mobile flagpole instead. (Leicester Mercury) A curry house in St Leonards Street, Edinburgh, was reprimanded over its "world's hottest chilli" competition by the Scottish Ambulance Service after two participants had to be taken to hospital. One – the eventual runner-up – was taken to hospital twice. The restaurant plans to hold an eating contest again next year, but with kormas.

Thursday

Peter Robins

Your Nobel Prize for Literature link round-up

From our UK edition

1) The official announcement of Tomas Transtömer's victory  2) The one person in Britain we can be absolutely certain has read Transtömer: his translator.  3) An excellent summary of the preceding hoaxes and Dylanology. 4) John Dugdale on the Nobel committee's chequered history in literary matters.  5) No announcement yet on the Nobel laureate in Ted Gioia's alternate universe.

Friday

Peter Robins

Local interest | 2 September 2011

From our UK edition

Exeter Cathedral is to mark the tenth anniversary of 11 September 2001 by having John Lennon's 'Imagine' played on its bells. (Exeter Express and Echo) A man has appeared before magistrates in Lincoln charged with shoplifting dresses worth a total of about £1,200 from Peacocks and Marks & Spencer. He attended court in knee-length boots, tartan tights and a black mini-skirt. (Lincolnshire Echo) Paignton Zoo is attempting to raise money through an auction of paintings by its gorillas. (Herald Express, Torquay) An 82-year-old woman from Workington has donated an early home-made television set to the National Media Museum in Bradford.

Saturday

Peter Robins

View finder

From our UK edition

Bold Tendencies is a seasonal sculpture exhibition, events venue and bar — in overall effect, a sort of hipster adventure playground — concealed in the disused upper levels of the multistorey car park opposite Peckham Rye railway station. Bold Tendencies is a seasonal sculpture exhibition, events venue and bar — in overall effect, a sort of hipster adventure playground — concealed in the disused upper levels of the multistorey car park opposite Peckham Rye railway station. It recently opened for its fifth year, and it has become one of the regular joys and oddities of the metropolitan summer.

Friday

Peter Robins

Local interest | 26 August 2011

From our UK edition

A couple in Merthyr transformed their front room into a shop selling cannabis and diazepam in order to pay off a loan on a mobility scooter. The woman was jailed for 10 months; the man, whose scooter it was, for 15. (South Wales Echo) An allotment-holder in Stourbridge has grown a 25lb cabbage. The secret, he says, is feeding them with liquid comfrey - and adding urine to the compost. (Express and Star, Wolverhampton) A six-year-old girl from Rushey Mead, Leicester, has received a B in maths GCSE. A girl of five took the same examination in east London, but she only managed an E. (Leicester Mercury) A 33-year-old man from Barrow-in-Furness has told magistrates that his cry of 'Come back, you fat bitch!

Friday

Peter Robins

Local interest | 19 August 2011

From our UK edition

A woman has been banned from every bookshop in the country after stealing £56 worth of magazines and Plasticine from a branch of WH Smith in Hartlepool. (Hartlepool Mail) The developers of a mosque on the site of a former pub in Sneinton, Nottingham, are seeking fresh planning permission after it was found to be 4ft higher on one side than it was in the original application. (Nottingham Post) A 20-year-old student in Sheringham, Norfolk, has achieved a B in biology A-level despite having given birth the night before the main exam. She also got an A* in psychology and C in history. (Eastern Daily Press) A 24-year-old man in Gloucester has been jailed for 16 weeks after he admitted stalking nine young women and then throwing water or cola over them.

Friday

Peter Robins

Local interest | 12 August 2011

From our UK edition

A 75-year-old man has been banned from driving for three years after falling off his mobility scooter on the way home from a pub in Elgin. The ban does not cover use of the mobility scooter, which can be driven without a licence. (Press and Journal, Aberdeen) A boy of nine has returned home from hospital after being impaled on a metal fence spike. He fell on to the fence from a tree in Nauls Mill Park, Coventry. (Coventry Telegraph) A bundle of sensitive documents belonging to the Welsh Government has been found in a hedge near Eglwyswrw, west Wales. (North Wales Daily Post) A cow leapt a three-foot fence and landed on a moving car in Leek, Staffordshire. The driver, who escaped with bruises and scratches, was breath-tested after calling 999 to report the incident.

Friday

Peter Robins

Link-blog: unintentional gags

From our UK edition

Geoff Dyer begins his new New York Times column with an excellent stylistic joke. Aggregators are destined to conquer the world (me probably excepted). Mrs Murdoch oughtta be in chicklit. Two pieces of interesting news from the Millions: you'll feel less guilt about reading a book in the bath if it's already dirty; and Ayn Rand's editor was a communist. Mark Twain's advice for little girls, illustr ks+ated .

Peter Robins

Local interest | 22 July 2011

From our UK edition

Billingham: A judge has given a couple a £500 reward after they locked a professional burglar in their porch. The burglar, who had been attempting to break in at 4am, was given seven years in jail. Portland: A 53-year-old woman has abseiled 60ft, for charity, down a cliff from which she fell at the age of 13. The fall was 240ft, and left her with a fractured skull. Oldham: A market trader has been cleared of deceit after telling a court that "only an idiot" would believe his £10 Dolce & Gabbana watches were genuine. Brighton: A man who planted a wildlife garden at Manor Hall Road allotments, Southwick, has been told by the district council that he must either grow some vegetables or give up his plot.