Saturday, 25 April 2026

I-Spy Cascais: a memorial to four of Portugal's wars

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Cascais is a charming historic town along the Tagus estuary from Lisbon. Its war memorial, pictured above, commemorates four of Portugal...
Tuesday, 7 April 2026

Media careers, centenarians, assassination, disasters all feature in my Bandwidth podcast

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My conversation with Katie Brewer of Bandwidth is now available.  We talk about getting into Oxford from an ordinary Manchester primary scho...
Friday, 27 March 2026

My Fireworks History: a talk and a quote

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Great fun to give a talk to the CSNA, Camden Square Neighbourhood Association, in London last night about my book 'A History of Firework...
Tuesday, 24 February 2026

The last Gorton by-election

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Thursday sees the Gorton by-election in what was the safe Labour seat of Manchester Gorton and Denton.  I was brought up in Gorton (East Man...
Thursday, 1 January 2026

New Year firework disasters

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It now seems that sparklers being carried too close to the ceiling was the cause of the New Year fire in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Monta...
Tuesday, 30 December 2025

Japanese newspaper explores my 'Fireworks' history

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I've just been interviewed about my book, A History of Fireworks from their Origins to the Present Day (Re aktion) by the Asahi Shimbu...
Sunday, 9 November 2025

Promo for my history of fireworks talk

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Looking forward to talking to members of Boundless.co.uk for civil servants past and present about my book 'A History of Fireworks from ...