Author Archives: j futrell

Never Not Never Go Back – a taste of Viareggio

Posted on June 1, 2019

My life is one of stringent rules: Never wear aftershave; always polish my shoes; stand up for elderly people and women with young children on the London underground; never vote tory; spread the jam on top of the cream upon … Continue reading →

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Getting To The Bottom Of It

Posted on May 2, 2019

I would be lying if I said I was looking forward to my ‘flexible sigmoidoscopy’; in layman’s terms, a camera inserted inside the bottom. Nonetheless, this is the procedure for those such as I who have endured a bout of … Continue reading →

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forget everything you ever learnt about a balanced diet

Posted on April 3, 2019

Shortly before she died, in a hospital similar to the one I recently  myself in, my mother asked for her Christmas present a Ralph Lauren watch. I’d bought her a watch a only a couple of years earlier yet despite … Continue reading →

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An Inconvenient Truth – the end of the high street just a click away

Posted on December 11, 2018

Don’t you ever think convenience is, well, getting out of hand. What began as convenient  – tv dinners for those too rushed to peel the potatoes stepped up a level to embrace teas-mades and bread-makers. Then supermarkets to save the … Continue reading →

Posted in gone west, shopping, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

I remember monkey bottles, kangaroo tails, and Frank Ifield

Posted on November 28, 2018

  I am fortunate to have worked through a period in journalism when the gifts, the perks – the freebies to apply the correct journalistic parlance – were worth having. My diary is housed within a handsome Papyrus leather book … Continue reading →

Posted in gone west, London, media, Seashores, travel, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The Price Of Fame

Posted on July 3, 2018

It’s flattering to receive an exclusive invitation, especially one from a Michelin rated chef. It reaffirms one’s faith in elitism, that select order of hedonists that has has a lot of bad press recently for being too clever and influential … Continue reading →

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A Significant Time

Posted on June 13, 2018

As a rule I’m not one for significant dates. Anniversaries I like because I like being married, and there are thems who are gone whom I miss. As for significant dates along the landfill of life –  you can keep … Continue reading →

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Mick Owens – the artful life of a generous man

Posted on March 13, 2018

Michael Owens looms disproportionately large in my life; a presence in four of the rooms of my home to be precise. For a man I shared a house with nearly 40 years ago, and whom for the past ten years … Continue reading →

Posted in London, media, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

when is a bookshop not a bookshop? when it’s in Hastings.

Posted on February 15, 2018

We hadn’t gone to Boulevard Books with a view to buying something to read. The thing is this secondhand bookshop in the centre of Hastings Old Town mutates into a Thai restaurant after dark and despite the walls in our … Continue reading →

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Vandals at work – the death of the bungalow

Posted on September 25, 2017

There soon won’t be any 1930s bungalows left. While conservation groups, local authorities and investors, watched closely by the likes of English Heritage, take pains to preserve ancient cottages as well as properties from the Victorian and Georgian eras anything … Continue reading →

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