Faber & Faber

Pussy Riot, the Russian anti-Putin Riot Grrrls are still being detained after their April 19 trial, threatened with up to seven years in jail. Amnesty and PEN are among the groups campaigning for their release. Two strong pieces here: Salon’s AM Gittlitz gives some useful background on punk in Russia, including the fabulpus observation that [...]

It was when I was studying Twelfth Night for GCSE English that I first heard the useful definition of a certain kind of comic character: someone who perceives himself in a vastly different way to how everyone else perceives him. Gervais, both a fan and a student of comedy, knows (or used to know) that [...]

All last year when I was promoting the book I wistfully said it would be great if an established multi-platinum British pop star released an out-and-out protest song that was witty, nuanced, relevant, exciting and commercial enough to be playlisted on Radio 1. And here it is.

You can learn a lot about a man by the tenor of the tributes he receives. When conservative firebrand Andrew Breitbart suffered a fatal heart attack yesterday, aged just 43, he was predictably lionised as a feisty patriot by the GOP, but Ann Coulter praised him for annoying liberals (“I think he enjoyed it even [...]

The current issue of The Word magazine includes my review of Jake Kinzey’s broadside against hipsters, The Sacred and the Profane. The magazine version was edited down from a longer draft which, with The Word’s permission, I’ve decided to publish here: Just before Christmas a blogger at NPR posted a witty list of the “20 [...]

This morning I read a very funny rant about Sainsburys’ decision to rename tiger bread giraffe bread on the advice of a three-and-half-old girl. One Lily Robinson wrote a letter, complete with “adorable” typos, to head office, who responded thus: “I think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea – it looks much [...]

I like the sound of this lot: Eight women stood in a line opposite the Kremlin, neon balaclavas hiding their faces, fists pounding the air in rugged defiance. Before police carted them off, the members of Pussy Riot managed to shout their way through a minute-long punk anthem: “Revolt in Russia – the charisma of [...]

With baleful timing a court ruling that kettling during the G20 protests was lawful swiftly followed one that ruled the Occupy encampment at St Paul’s wasn’t. At least we know where we stand. As Occupy’s lawyer, John Cooper QC, remarked: “This is an important judgment. It marks the start of a legal analysis as to [...]

I can imagine a world in which Diane Abbott’s tweet that “White people love playing ‘divide and rule’ We should not play their game #tacticasoldascolonialism” would be racist. In this parallel universe Britain is dominated, politically and economically, by an unshakeable clique of black, working-class women and two black men have just been convicted, several [...]

I’ve been catching up on some articles from the last couple of months, following up links and bookmarks that I didn’t have time to read in the end-of-year rush. Here are three 33rpm-relevant pieces that I wish I’d written: Maura Johnston at the Village Voice explains why Jessie J’s Price Tag was the most infuriating [...]