5th March 2026
I Know Why The Caged Clintons Sing
“When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire,…
20th February 2026
We Need To Talk About Andrew
Yesterday’s arrest of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor from the King’s private estate in Sandringham is a…
18th February 2026
Heathcliff’s Lovers and Me
The scene comes early. Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) grabs the diminutive Cathy (Margot Robbie) by the…
11th February 2026
Gone Guthrie
The prospect of an armed and balaclava-ed man invading your bedroom in the dead of…
23rd January 2026
Brooklyn, My Brooklyn
“It takes a lifetime to understand how deeply our parents loved us.” *** Brooklyn…
19th January 2026
The Spanish Trains
“There's a Spanish train that runs between Guadalquivir and old Seville And at dead of…
12th January 2026
Nuremberg – a trial to watch
Rami Malek is saddled with handsomeness of a curious kind. His jaw is sharp, his…
10th January 2026
The Unburied Soul Of Madeleine McCann
I am taking breakfast in an enclave of British tourism, evidenced by a menu of…
9th December 2025
Notes From The Piano Maternity
It began with my mother. Holding my outstretched finger, she helped me tap out a…
7th December 2025
Return to Matsuyama
“Travel is the restless lover who leaves his scent, and not his number.” …
7th December 2025
Japan’s Most Famous Irishman
My quiet bite to eat had become a boozy lock-in. The sake was flowing, women…
3rd December 2025
Lionhearts
Japan has elevated the humble egg to an art form. It is present at all…
28th November 2025
Her Darkening Dream
Her coffee house was a slow-moving anomaly which continued to turn out thick toast, hot…
19th November 2025
The Sumo Sacrifice
Silently, we entered their training space. The room’s warmth and humidity placed the senses on…
15th November 2025
The Gentlemen’s Coffee Club
They had been friends for 70 years. Two were aged 92 and their junior partner…
3rd November 2025
Tuning Up
I have arrived in Hamamatsu which lies on the east coast of Honshu, a bullet-hour…
28th October 2025
The Koto Concert
The lady was nice - just not my kind of nice. She asked too many…
25th October 2025
On The Rise Of English In Japan
Once upon a time, to walk through Japanese streets as a foreigner was to experience…
20th October 2025
Victor Victoria
Victoria Beckham, in a documentary sequel to David’s Netflix hit of 2023, was in organisation…
15th October 2025
Encouragement
Yesterday, on a blistering stretch of urban trail, I heard the shuffling of someone behind…
8th October 2025
Exchange
We met on the road to Imabari. I had stepped into a Hawaiian-themed establishment to…
6th October 2025
Lay Me Down In A Love Hotel
It was a curious first day, beginning by clanging the bell of a Shintō temple,…
3rd October 2025
A Child In Japan
Chapter 1: Counting The acceptance of cash payment, on a platter and with two palms…
29th September 2025
Destination Hiroshima
Quincy, Illinois: 1915 When her waters broke, on the morning of 23 February 1915, Mrs…
26th September 2025
The Fragrance Of A Sting
I studied psychology for a couple of years in my forties. The most enduring legacy…
23rd September 2025
The Japanese Equinox
Passing through the hotel lobby, I discover that today, Tuesday, is a public holiday in…
20th September 2025
Thirty Men Of Kobe
As the plane descends over Osaka Bay, the clouds form a guard of honour. They…
12th September 2025
Neck
Public violence is shot through with symbolic meaning. Voltaire, in his novella Candide (1759), critiqued…
26th August 2025
Paris, In August
The demise of Jean-Paul Sartre was a drawn-out affair for his lover, who sat at…
5th August 2025
In Praise Of Men
“Just because they say it, doesn’t mean it’s true.” It…
27th May 2025
Doors To Emmanuel
The door of the aircraft had just been opened. The president of the French Republic…
29th April 2025
Iberia Goes Dark
Electricity is the oxygen of modern life. To watch the current drama in the Iberian…
27th April 2025
Germaine
I have assembled my own legion of creative giants, as I potter through life. My…
25th March 2025
Unfinished Beauty
Wolfgang Mozart, famously, had the temerity to die before completing his Requiem, a commissioned piece…
1st March 2025
The World Is But A Broken Toy
I fluttered briefly onto X to discover what the world was serving up, and paid…
20th February 2025
The Man Who Holds a Blade to My Neck Just Invited Me to His Wedding
I’ve had the same barber for more than a year now. The less hair I…
18th February 2025
Serbia’s Strongman Meets His Match
Prelude ‘What the media isn’t reporting…’, began Madonna’s post on Instagram at the start of…
4th February 2025
Leanne Morgan’s Funny
Choosing comedians is like forming friendships. There’s no rush. The fit has to feel just…
6th January 2025
Magi
The Spanish do it better. Yuletide has double the intensity when it is cut in…
31st December 2024
Only The Tail Remains: a New Year’s Eve reflection
The sight of that JeJu Air flight, careening off the runway into a reinforced concrete…
21st December 2024
Streetcar
I want to write about a play I’ve seen, but this isn’t a review. For…
16th December 2024
Living Martha
Gifted people are often poly. They can rock up in many fields, and always plough…
5th December 2024
Death Of A CEO
Brian Thompson left his Luxury Collection Hotel in Midtown Manhattan around 6:44am yesterday morning, and…
25th November 2024
In Search Of Jaguar’s Soul
Among native Amazonian tribes, the jaguar is known for its fierceness, and its surprise. Life…
13th November 2024
Age and Rage
The great triumph is to be alive. Age? Well, that’s another thing. As Joni Mitchell…
9th November 2024
Foraging For First Ladies
There is a quality to the sky’s colour in this historical stretch of American coast.…
5th November 2024
DC Diaries #2: Suspense
I finally find the button to reduce the glare on the TV. Smart televisions are…
2nd November 2024
DC Diaries #1: America Goes West
America nearly didn’t happen. At least, not in the way we know it. For the…
1st November 2024
Spanish Flood Flashback
The ongoing emergency in the province of Valencia, where upturned cars clog the streets and…
17th October 2024
Payne
I had just read some other news from Argentina. A dozy commuter, walking while scrolling,…
8th September 2024
Magnificat
The museum did not open until 3pm, and so I people-watched for a while. A…
15th August 2024
Advice, For Lovers
One should fall in love with a Café Owner, at least once in a lifetime. …
10th August 2024
Edna’s Banquet
It is her funeral today, and she is returned to Clare. Some years ago, in…
15th July 2024
The Crux
The news reports were frustrating. Their headlines, usually drunk on drama, lacked precision and meaning. …
19th June 2024
Of Life And Lazarus
In 2012, Detective Stephanie Lazarus of the LAPD was convicted of a homidice, committed in…
25th March 2024
Salomé
I have dreamt of you, veiled Salomé. Your breath is on my skin - sweet…
10th March 2024
Film Of Interest
This extraordinary film is simultaneously powerful and boring. It is conceived not as an unfolding…
5th March 2024
Berlin’s David Hasselhoff Museum
I am a neighbourhood man. I once visited Tokyo for 48 hours and did nothing…
12th February 2024
Saltburnt
That the writer-director of Saltburn understands the machinations of the British aristocracy is clear from…
18th January 2024
Flamenco In Valencia
He was a young man, in his mid-twenties, with curling black hair about his shoulders,…
4th January 2024
More Than It Says On The Tin
The first Spanish painter I knew was my own age, and from Valencia. I knew…
29th October 2023
Stand-Up For Gen-Z
We know when we witness something fresh. Human beings are built to notice the novel.…
14th October 2023
Honey, Darling?
Londen. Londyn. Londres. Londinium. There are many Londons. I guess an invitation of travel is…
31st August 2023
Bocuse
He would be 98 years old if he were alive today. And if passion alone…
26th August 2023
Tick Tok
The church tower in Lake Issarlès, high in the Ardèche mountains of southern France, rings…
24th August 2023
Come To The Quiet
Everything interesting is difficult. Let me translate this thought to Latin, to lend it more…
22nd August 2023
Fire
So that a donkey may drink, I spent the afternoon in the pursuit of phantom…
19th August 2023
La France Profonde
I am sitting on the banks of the Allier river, which marks the border between…
15th August 2023
The Clank Of Pétanque
In travel, any pace is the perfect pace. Each choice of transport brings its own…
13th August 2023
One Year Later, But Will She Care?
I am in south central France, close to the rising of the Loire. Across the…
28th July 2023
Scarlet Sinéad
The most striking image I recall of Sinéad O’Connor, the moment she became indelible, was…
18th July 2023
Jane, Je T’Aime
The pop-culture scene in France, when I lived there in the early 90s, was more…
4th June 2023
Her Towering Bells
He buried Titus here, not knowing that, in a year’s time, father would join son. …
26th May 2023
The Tune That Spike Liked
“I’m a jobbing clown”. Spike Milligan’s self-described persona jumps to life in his conversation, riffing…
17th May 2023
Seasons
April, come she will. When streams are ripe and swelled with rain. I am…
6th May 2023
The Strains Of Zadok
This is the story of a piece of music, and its place in the anointing…
6th April 2023
Between Galway & Gethsemane
There is a seafarers’ memorial situated at the Middle Pier in Howth. Its central design…
28th February 2023
Unchained
The mind wobbles in mysterious ways. Just last week, I read the sad and moving…
20th January 2023
A Tour Guide Considers His Lot
As he advanced towards me, three geese followed up the rear, in steady meter behind…
2nd October 2022
Ecce Homo, Ecce Mater
I value original thinking mostly because it’s so damned hard to achieve. The frequency of…
16th September 2022
The Elizabeth Line
DIARY ENTRY #1 London’s newest underground railway line has been in the planning since the…
8th September 2022
One Day
She reigns no longer. Britain’s longest-serving monarch, 96 years of age and 70 years Regina,…
6th September 2022
23 Years Later, A Mystery Solved
The sketch caught my eye as we walked under a bridge of the Seine, during…
14th August 2022
McGregor’s Army
I have met two barbers in the space of twenty four hours, which is surprising,…
12th August 2022
Grief Is A Faltering Donkey
At the bottom of one of her leather saddle packs, as I prepared to hand…
10th August 2022
Walkabout
Like most people I really like, I thought he was a pain in the arse…
6th August 2022
Her Perfect Place
I will send her Bushmills. I woke up to the idea bouncing in my head,…
3rd August 2022
Alone
He was a tall man, in the autumn of his seventies, with a jowly face…
1st August 2022
Brian Is In The Kitchen
Travelling with a donkey, as Joseph and Mary learnt the hard way, makes for slow…
1st August 2022
What Happened In Pradelles
Pradelles, in the Haute-Loire, had its moment in the sun 500 years ago when a…
30th July 2022
Postcards From The Sedge
I walked into a restaurant here in Langogne at 3.30pm, when lunch was clearly over,…
29th July 2022
Exclusive: Kaïcha Sacking Fiasco
Kaïcha has a meltdown at Landos, 7kms from her point of departure, 24 hours after…
27th July 2022
No Room At The Inn
It’s official. We’re a couple. I’m tempted to change my Facebook status, but I’m not…
26th July 2022
First Date With Kaïcha
The night before meeting Kaïcha, Christophe started loading on the bad news. She simply can’t…
25th July 2022
Following Robert Louis Stevenson’s Ass
A donkey awaits me in the south of France. The trail we will take together…
30th March 2022
Slap And Tickle
It was not, in the pantheon of American humour, the greatest of jokes. But, as…
11th September 2021
The Grey Snow of 9/11
Early on a June morning in 1986 I entered the lobby of the World Trade…
6th August 2021
Laying Low In Cavan
“It’s lashin”, she said, when I arrived down to breakfast. And as her patrons filtered…
4th August 2021
Grass And The Grotto
The lack of athleticism in my cycling is shocking to behold. I am in no…
3rd August 2021
Circumnavigating Ireland’s Torso
I almost showed up in Naples, not Navan, yesterday. Three days ago, I sat having…
24th October 2020
After The War
I watched a brief interview with Doris Lessing, the British author who learnt she had…
3rd October 2020
By The Dawn’s Early Light
And the virus’ red glare, Its bombs bursting in air Gave proof through the night…
15th August 2020
A Man And His Grass
I worked with a talented, experienced landscape gardener named Lisa, some years ago. We were…
11th August 2020
Qualitative Research And Zoom
Qualitative research is the act of focused curiosity, between people. Not so focused that the…
6th August 2020
Conspiracy Of Truth
When I first met Dixie Longate, somewhere between Marseille and Rome, I was bent on…
3rd June 2020
Teacher
My teacher died this week. He taught me throughout my secondary school years - English…
29th May 2020
Worth A Thousand Words
If the invention of moving pictures allowed us to capture and recreate how we live,…
26th May 2020
Notes From A Bedside
My friend will never leave this bed she is lying in. There is a guttural,…
25th May 2020
Casting Connell
Look at the actor Paul Mescal from a distance, and he’s like any fella walking…
19th May 2020
On The Instinct To Conserve
I have found the 2016 election of Donald Trump challenging. But not in the manner…
4th May 2020
Oh, Framing!
China speaks of absolutes Sweden speaks of calm Germany speaks of common sense Holland speaks…
11th April 2020
Before The Fall
It was a halcyon time. That time when woman, wrought from the rib of man,…
6th April 2020
Crown And Corona
She did not mention it once. Looking straight to camera, back upright with the gait…
1st April 2020
Why I Don’t Give A Fuck About Your Tips
There's been a worrying Corona-rise in people dispensing advice. In the form of tips.…
20th March 2020
Ovid’s Nineteen on Covid-19
The great poet’s name rhymes with the viral pall that hangs above us. What can…
18th March 2020
Corona: Collapse Between Fact and Fiction
Eski knows there’s something up. Why the hell is my Master here all the time?…
12th March 2020
The Corona Chronicles
Each of us is a citizen, bound in a unique moment of jeopardy. The earthquake…
8th March 2020
Clara In Valencia
As we walked down the sunny side of the street she described her student life,…
5th March 2020
Bridge Over Troubled Innovation
It is fifty years since Paul Simon released his songwriting masterpiece, 'Bridge Over Troubled Water',…
24th February 2020
Why I’m Sacking TripAdvisor
In brand-building, it can be fun and instructive to have enemies. We understand better what…
9th February 2020
Shoah: under the watchtowers of Auschwitz
The German words encountered in the world’s most notorious concentration camp are predominantly those of command…
6th February 2020
On The Road To Auschwitz
Because it cost them everything, it will cost me nothing. 1.1 million people were murdered…
28th January 2020
Dear Kobe
He had lived in Italy for some years from the age of six, describing it…
17th January 2020
Look Sharp. See 1917.
Urgency. There is no time to spare. If an order is not delivered there will…
15th January 2020
Megxit, Pursued By A Bear
We are living a singular regal moment. The British sovereign, aged 93, has successfully put…
5th January 2020
My Dream Of Marian
It was my mother who got the news to me. Ear eternally to the radio,…
11th December 2019
Volcano
At its most fundamental, a volcano is a crack in the ground. Depending on the…
1st December 2019
Dissecting Mister Fawlty
Works of genius do not happen by accident. Genius must work hard in the creation…
14th October 2019
Marathon Man
The story of the first marathon is one of myth, weaving historical fact and human…
1st October 2019
Jessye In Paris
I am sitting at an Illy Café in the centre of Paris, some metres off…
27th August 2019
Beyond Cancer, To Dancing
My DNA malfunction has been addressed. Through the intervention of medical experts, six robotic incisions,…
12th July 2019
Today I Am Reborn
I am a child of summer, born on the 12th of July. My mother tells…
22nd June 2019
London, In The Heart Of June
I am sitting in a cafe that sits in a Garden Square. It is run…
2nd May 2019
Meaning Of Mystery: The Lost Girls Of Panama
Chapter 1: Changing Habits I have drifted in my leisure-time media consumption, both in form…
30th April 2019
Malta’s Fault-lines Of Love
It is 10am, and I am sitting on the balcony of Crust in St Julian’s…
26th April 2019
Decoding The Candidates’ Logos
The logo. That simple, eloquent and essential visual statement of who you are. What you…
2nd April 2019
Scotland’s Dissent
Have you ever sat in the back seat of a car, certain of the route…
30th March 2019
Her’s & Ours
I am possessive about grammar, like a dog with a bone. And like most dogs…
24th January 2019
The Role Of Camp In Culture
When I was otherwise engaged gestating, Susan Sontag published an essay entitled ‘Notes On Camp’. …
13th January 2019
Life Is Simply Magnificent
We are each of us in search of transcendent experiences. This desire is at the…
6th January 2019
India’s Secret
Stalin has brought me coffee. My kind of coffee. Because Stalin is my kind of…
17th November 2018
Three Dimensions Of Elon
It seems I am surrounded with lessons about dimensions. And it seems I am a slow learner.…
11th November 2018
My Own Private Armistice
Lying in bed on the beautiful morning of the 11th of November 2018, I began…
29th October 2018
Flaws, Jaws And Genius
During the course of 124 minutes, with the help of iTunes, I have returned to…
15th October 2018
Innovation Is Murmuration
I am interested in how groups of people can, in the right context and with…
10th October 2018
RMS Leinster: down in dazzle
A client of mine is not working today. He is departing on a boat from…
6th October 2018
My Memories Of Montserrat
Her name was as big and meaty as her voice and presence. I happened to…
2nd October 2018
Walking Above Clouds
I have walked above clouds. The first time you do it, it leaves its mark. …
30th September 2018
Jane Austen: dead or alive
I sat for an hour beside the grave of Jane Austen. The problem with people…
29th September 2018
Jane Austen Has Invited Me To Tea
If you want a sense of how large the Muslim world is, and how committed…
20th September 2018
Why I Write
The established counsel for prospective authors, dispensed at the drop of a microphone, is twofold:…
24th August 2018
The Prodigal Fanboy
It is so easy to be drawn into it - the tumult of adoration during…
13th August 2018
The Legend of Poor Rich
A few days ago, a transit worker at Seattle Airport entered the cockpit of an…
10th July 2018
How Psychology Can Help Change Behaviour
Almost ten years ago I began a post-grad in psychology - spending two years learning full…
4th July 2018
Ryanair and the culture of ‘non-priority’
If you ever doubted the ability of one person’s influence to permeate a culture and…
18th June 2018
ASMR: one tingle and you’re tangled
My truncated opera career lasted four seasons. Being a late bloomer, I got cast in…
13th June 2018
Where Are The Experts? Why Aren’t They Here?
Almost ten years ago, I returned to full-time education for two years, completing a post-grad…
12th June 2018
Finding Illyria
I met a taxi driver yesterday by the name of Qemal. I asked him if…
9th June 2018
All We Are Saying Is Give Asexuals A Chance
Almost ten years ago I began a post-grad in psychology - spending two years learning full…
6th June 2018
The Way You Think Can Save Your Life
Almost ten years ago, I returned to full-time education for two years, completing a post-grad…
10th February 2018
West Cork To The World
It is a long, meandering tale of tragedy. Across 6.5 hours and 13 episodes, the…
6th February 2018
Frasier’s Dad is Dead
John Mahoney’s true love was the stage. After his role in ‘A Long Day’s Journey…
23rd January 2018
Dolores
I had been travelling a long time before I recognised that no matter how good…
14th January 2018
Reinventing The Banana
My mother was a toddler when Germany invaded Poland in 1939, and still under ten…
9th January 2018
Going Bollywood
On explaining my dance plans to a friend a few months back, he encouraged me…
5th January 2018
What It Means To Be Indian
I take it all back. Indians drive like maniacs. They overtake on a whim with…
2nd January 2018
Twelve Hours In India
The first twelve hours in a country are hardly the basis for any decision beyond…
10th December 2017
Bitcoin: the little cryptocurrency that could
The irony of innovation is that it is often discussed and rarely encountered. Most of…
20th November 2017
Putting On My Selina Scotts
Life is lived in a tumble of moments upon moments, each vying to gain our…
30th October 2017
Palermo Mio
It is my destiny never to get to the bottom of it. I no longer…
28th October 2017
Why Trump Is Here To Stay
- When a guy makes stupid moves on the draughts board, causing chaos and holding…
26th October 2017
Go Placidly And Create A Brand World
When Max Ehrmann wrote his beloved prose poem in 1927, little suggested that Desiderata would…
16th October 2017
Ophelia Bears Down On Harvey
Her death, one of the most celebrated in literature, happens off-stage. Ophelia, driven mad by…
17th September 2017
My Encounter With George Hook
In the Spring of 2014, I sat in a Dublin café with George Hook talking…
8th September 2017
Poo
I have long been critical of brands that slyly betray their owners. The splendid 'poo…
4th August 2017
It Would Make You Think
In the glare of an August afternoon, I walked among headstones in Mount Jerome. There…
19th July 2017
War of the World
As teenagers just out of school, I and four friends cycled across France and a…
18th June 2017
London’s Burning
As the flames danced behind the cheap cladding of Grenfell Tower, there was a brief…
3rd June 2017
When The Big Boy Bails
It is a scenario familiar to most small businesses. You develop a disproportionate relationship with…
1st June 2017
Darling Michael
The remembered life of a young boy in outback Australia Chapter 1: Man…
22nd April 2017
Samsung Dreams Of Flight
Locate the dream, then bring it to life. This was the essence of my Friday…
19th April 2017
Toffoli, And The Meaning Of Local
Toffoli is a restaurant on my street. It is perhaps 15 metres from my door.…
15th April 2017
ABBA’s Seven Insights
Even as the music critics thrashed them, the most feted rock stars of the 70s…
4th April 2017
Sweet ShitTown, Alabama
How a podcast investigating a murder has breathed life into the nature of love, and…
27th March 2017
On Average, People Are Average
'Well, that's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the…
23rd March 2017
The Next President of France
It is easy to be distracted by the personal story of Emmanuel Macron. And yet,…
7th March 2017
Disasterously Good, Dangerously True
It is surprising how difficult it is to find truth. I do not mean this…
3rd March 2017
Dammit, I just want a coffee
I have still not got the hang of coffee parlance. Between flat whites and skinny…
3rd March 2017
And the Oscar goes to…
We live in Trumpian times. When his wife plagiarised swathes of Michelle Obama's speech for…
21st January 2017
Slayer of Dreams
As he stood, hand on a bible, and began to recite that brief oath, my…
17th January 2017
Airlines Can Break Your Heart
Love / Hate at 30,000 feet I am reminded of how emotionally I engage with…
14th January 2017
The Flight Of The Cassowary
Australia's expansive, and famously pesky, biodiversity is, to my amateur eye, evidence that competition delivers…
13th January 2017
Lollipop Ladies of Bangkok
The king is dead. The nation mourns, each in her own way. The hospitality manager…
9th January 2017
La La Strategy
What if strategy began with notes, not words? Famous people are, as a rule, annoying.…
8th January 2017
Troublerone
I have spent a lot of time in my life thinking about chocolate. I am…
7th January 2017
Sydney Serendipity
Chapter 1 Thomas' father was called Turnip Townshend, in honour of the various agricultural innovations…
7th January 2017
Walking on Waiheke
When I think of Waiheke now, a few days after leaving its azure shores for…
30th December 2016
The Kiwi Connection
If Australia is the wizened, desert-scarred soul of adventure, New Zealand is its comforting Eden…
22nd December 2016
On First Encountering Australia
Terra Australis, the great land to the south, was the object of the seafaring explorers…
21st December 2016
Tokyo’s Breakfast Lottery
In her own way, she inhabited her morning diner like the waitress from the Breakfast…
17th December 2016
The Beautiful Stranger
'I stand before you as a doormat. A female in the music industry.' The opening…
13th December 2016
O Hear The Angel Voices
You know it when you hear it. It. The music that breaks your heart. The…
3rd December 2016
He’s from Barcelona
The death of actor Andrew Sachs this week will be particularly resonant to anyone who…
26th November 2016
Memories of Cuba
It is fully twenty years since I walked the streets of Havana. I'm going to…
25th November 2016
London Town
This, is a city. Cities. Those magnificent, preposterous, energising, mystifying, petrifying places of worship and…
21st November 2016
The Good Sailor
Today, I took a walk on this cold November morning with my dog, along the…
15th November 2016
An American Tragedy
America is the sow that eats her own farrow. An imperfect woman of talent has…
11th November 2016
You don’t really care for music, do ya?
Trump's election tears some beauty from the world. His is an ugly victory. One of…
1st November 2016
Marketing in an age of punditry
As is my wont, I am a slave to podcastery at the moment, given the…
2nd October 2016
My Trump Weekend
What if this whole election thing were a vanity project, gone rogue? I spent the…
28th July 2016
Life on Mars
The news, carried in most of the papers today, of the death of Forrest Mars…
20th July 2016
Words are Cheap. Meaning is Valuable.
There is a scene in the first season of Six Feet Under which has remained with…
17th July 2016
Gokémon
I spent over three hours last evening in the grip of augmented reality. Walking through…
13th July 2016
The Young Turks are coming
The combined forces of a rigged media landscape and a throttled generation of 20 somethings…
9th July 2016
The Power of Inspiration
Obama's former speechwriter spoke recently of what he learned, working with a man audacious enough to place…
30th June 2016
Not that Canary island. This Canary island.
When I finally got her attention, she busied herself in getting my coffee. Having the…
28th June 2016
Marketing 101: all they needed was love
The British people have "had enough of experts". With these words, Michael Gove articulated the…
25th June 2016
Don’t go Brexit my heart
I have a complicated love-relationship with Britain. As our nearest neighbour, I grew up with…
16th May 2016
Trump, the marketing man, will likely win the presidency
For all of his false tan and crazy hair, Donald is a human being in a…
9th May 2016
Ireland of Imagination
Six inspiring personalities that make Ireland special 1. Here's to the man who saw his…
25th April 2016
Iceland’s Seismic Shift
The most facile way to characterise this topsy turvy country of fascinating contradictions is to…
20th April 2016
AGED: on the curious compensations of middle-age
In the world of fine whisky, ageing is the highway to specialness. With Time comes…
17th March 2016
What it means to be Irish
Born in insurrection, raised in turmoil, Ireland emerges into the sun. I sat in…
17th March 2016
What Remains is What Matters
I am a fan of the lingering detail. Specifics that do not shift are valuable…
10th March 2016
Rubio is Dying
RUBIO FALLS TO THE ORIGINAL SIN OF POLITICS & MARKETING: NOT KNOWING WHO YOU ARE…
3rd March 2016
On Being Trumped
Trump is not a leader. He is the result of failed leadership. Hillary Clinton is…
7th February 2016
The Masculine Earthquake
Axe knows what it means to be manly. Do you? We are witnessing the fastest…
18th January 2016
Not Caring
'How can you be like that?', I asked the 22 year old who sat in…
17th January 2016
Murdering Making a Murderer: the psychology of spoilers
I'm in conflict. I both want to view Making a Murderer until the bitter end…
10th January 2016
PLODcast: managing success is a high-class problem
WHY DO WE HAVE SUCCESS? Whenever success comes a calling, there is a pressing question…
9th January 2016
Resolving on Resolutions
I am sitting in the giant central concourse of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport, a…
2nd January 2016
Troubadour
Discussion is the national sport of Israel. They are incessant talkers, Israelis. This extends to…
2nd January 2016
Tackling Hebrew
When I moved to France in 1989, I lived a simple life, and was always…
23rd December 2015
Behold. A car is reborn.
Renewal. That is the word I heard most. I have just watched a press conference…
22nd December 2015
Smouldering Dangerous Coffee
Because I live in a post-television age in my own home (two years and counting),…
11th December 2015
Taxi to Kandahar
I remember a young man in one of my research groups describing chat radio after…
7th December 2015
Don’t Make Unnecessary Journeys
The commentary section of YouTube videos can be a land of bores, buffoons and cribbers.…
11th November 2015
Shaken Bacon
By Brian McIntyre, on November 11th 2015, in Dublin. In the end, the pig…
12th October 2015
So Wright
By Brian McIntyre, in Dublin. October 12th, 2015. Frank Lloyd Wright was an arrogant sonofabitch…
22nd September 2015
Vorsprung durch Fraud
Volkswagen, the Lower Saxony automaker and global behemoth, has landed itself in a Teutonic pickle…
19th September 2015
My week in Tel Aviv
70km out the road is the city on the hill. It is cooler there. You…
24th August 2015
The things I choose not to do
A good friend - herself a senior business leader - sat down with me over…
23rd August 2015
Signature
There's a movie on Netflix that I liked. It's about creativity, and what drives the…
23rd August 2015
Hotel Dystopia: one day in Dubai
Being its resident for some twenty hours, I had time to ruminate on why exactly…
21st June 2015
BATTLEGROUNDS: 5 things politics can teach marketing
To be human is to be political. 'Politics', of course, are not negative - despite…
17th June 2015
Berkeley: where the rot begins
The news from Berkeley, California, is so upsetting that I cannot sit still. Five Irish…
14th June 2015
Criticism
Last Tango in Paris (1972) - a movie put on the map by Pauline Kael's…
11th June 2015
He took me to The Island
It is oft seen, but rarely visited. Across great swathes of Ayrshire coastline, locals wake to…
5th June 2015
FI, FA, fo, fum
I smell the blood of a Swiss man. And an American. And a Trinidadian. And…
3rd June 2015
What’s going on here?
Within this picture lies the key to great communication. Take a good look. What's going…
4th May 2015
A unicorn without a horn is a horse
Recent writing by Jonathan Rauch draws attention to the U-shaped curve of life's happiness. As…
25th April 2015
Scale
Listening to critics speak about the recently released fashion documentary 'Dior and I', I was…
20th April 2015
Big in Japan: the use of Haiku in marketing
Similar to the re-reading of beloved books, revisiting political campaigns, where the outcome is both known…
10th April 2015
The joy of tears
I saw a piece of theatre last week. It was familiar to me. I have…
5th April 2015
The Brief
Amid the 2015 Oscars hullabaloo of a couple of months back, one sound bite from…
14th March 2015
The art of seduction
There is a well-trod phrase in the world of advertising which scolds brand owners whose…
12th February 2015
Brian Williams and the ticking clock
Brian Williams has experienced a biblical fall-from-grace for telling self-glamorising tall tales while covering the…
5th February 2015
Intimacy
Intimacy is the new authenticity. What in hell does that mean? Well, look around you.…
3rd February 2015
Amnesia is bad for business
History is cultural psychoanalysis. Its mission is not to discover facts, but rather to uncover…
31st January 2015
Making peace with that objectionable term, SYNERGY
Outside of being described as a marketeer, I can live with most catchphrases in our…
7th January 2015
ON PARODY – in life and in marketing
The unfolding events in Paris – where 12 are left dead at the offices of…
30th December 2014
Happenings at a Window: three stories, one word
In the receding embers of 2014, there is little left to do but make some…
24th December 2014
A Christmas Story
Every shop has its seasonal rhythm. I spoke to Dave, who runs the local deli…
18th December 2014
In praise of podcasting
16 months ago I got rid of TV. Well, not exactly. The physical machine is…
16th December 2014
Serial’s killer fact
In the whodunnit which has recently captured 5 million podcast downloads, there are really only…
23rd November 2014
Hozier Exposure
Ambition is not necessarily correlated with success. Thank God. The Nazis aspired to a 1000…
19th November 2014
Why TV is so damned good these days
When I think of the freedom of the 1960s, the romance of the 1950s, the…
17th November 2014
Bill Clinton, Brand Manager.
The old dog has not forgot his old, winning tricks. Unlike George W. Bush, who…
16th November 2014
How screenwriting helps brand-making
I've taken to screenplay studies. It is possible to become a student of anything, once…
15th November 2014
Poppies in London Tower: a story
I am an unlikely candidate to have a meaningful relationship with the Tower of London,…
8th November 2014
Burying the Lead: English is from Mars, German is from Venus
For all of its supposed proximity to English, German sometimes feels like it's from another…
29th October 2014
A Question of Insight
All progress in life is based on killer questions. They are the challenges which make…
28th October 2014
Captured: the power of the picture
In my work, I rely more and more on carefully curated images to tell complex…
21st October 2014
Gone Girl: harmony is sooo last season
Gilian Flynn pronounces her first name with a hard G. That's GILLIE-an, not JILLY-an. Ms…
12th October 2014
Seinfeld thinks Marketing screws with people’s lives. Kinda.
Jerry Seinfeld recently delivered a blistering, amusing takedown of advertising. It was an uninvited 'Marketing…
23rd August 2014
The Ice Bucket Age
In the Spring of 2007, I sat on the deck of a sailing ship in…
14th August 2014
For the very first time
There is a scene in American Beauty that is a transfixing emotional journey. Carolyn (Annette…
23rd July 2014
Unplugged: the executioner’s lament
When I travel, I’m a devil for power. That is to say, if my iPhone…
23rd July 2014
God Bless America
I ended up using public transport for most of my stay in San Francisco last…
20th July 2014
Caught red-handed, doing the right thing
I have spent most of a week in San Francisco, that cradle of relaxed inventiveness,…
12th June 2014
Spontaneity & the art of toilet-making
A consistent rule of thumb, among young drinking men, is this: the best nights out…
7th June 2014
The taste of time
Last night, I tasted some Armagnac brandy which was distilled in 1925 - five years…
28th April 2014
The moon, the moon
This details the most beautiful way to describe a lunar eclipse that I have ever…
13th April 2014
Cheater, Cheetah
I have watched a cheetah hunting, once, in South Africa. It was a beautiful sight.…
6th April 2014
Vinyl Revival, and the meaning of life
The story came out of Mississippi, birthplace of Elvis Presley and BB King. But it…
2nd April 2014
On first seeing Russia
One of the most beloved novels in the English language was originally entitled 'First Impressions'.…
17th March 2014
Lacoste has made a beautiful ad
I have been a fan of French cinema for many years - but in the…
13th March 2014
The Facebook Fallacy
It is simply inscrutable. Why have I never seen one single episode of CSI, given…
27th November 2013
The Fascinating Detail
My nerd gene seems to be expressing itself, exponentially. Released from the peer pressure of…
8th October 2013
My Kingdom for a Postcode
Looking back, it is hard to define what made it so compelling. Was it simply…
2nd October 2013
Amanda Knox and the challenge of global marketing
The retrial of Amanda Knox, the 26-year-old American exchange student charged with the 2007 murder…
22nd September 2013
Ryanair: can a camp Irish bully really reform?
Once upon a time there was an airline like no other. It was bedecked in…
17th June 2013
Bee still my beating heart
You will begin to see bees everywhere - in our culture, in our media, in…
10th June 2013
This change may affect your marketing career
How would you approach your current employment, or your next job interview, if you knew…
8th May 2013
In praise of Tower Records
Recession takes no prisoners. It is dispiriting to pass so many retail outlets which have…
30th April 2013
Laundry Quandary
Authenticity in life is always aspirational. It is simply worth more. We somehow know this…
22nd April 2013
The ‘Boston Bomber’ and a truth of marketing.
'We got him' With this tweet from Boston's mayor, Tom Menino, his city seemed to…
1st April 2013
Swashbuckle – battling the ordinary
Idling in my hotel foyer, I picked up a book on the life of Shakespeare.…
28th March 2013
GAME – the power of marketing’s fourth wall
It was a tense moment. The maned lion, limping yet still powerful, edged his way…
16th March 2013
Mayor Bloomberg, junk food and the ethics of marketing
In the Spanish language, the word 'advertising' translates as 'propaganda'. I find this revealing, a…
8th March 2013
Carrie Bradshaw, I hardly knew you
I've spent more than a week working in New York City, staying in a hotel…
19th February 2013
Inglorious Pistorius
When I lived in France many years ago, I used to learn both French and…
13th February 2013
Perfection is soooo last season
"Nine-and-a-half percent! Nine-and-a-half percent! Buy a Fiat right away, it's money wisely spent." This radio…
6th February 2013
Netflix reinvents TV – tomorrow happening today
One of the big ideas that has drawn me to semiotics (the art of understanding…
16th January 2012
Consumer Change: books versus eBooks
I grew up entranced by song. It was constantly on my mind and in my…
4th January 2012
Learning marketing from storytellers
Having led a dissolute movie-life until my mid thirties, even I was surprised when I…
8th December 2011
Greatest Marketer Of All Time? Who it is may surprise you
In my thirties, I followed politics and read The Economist. Facts were my way of…
16th November 2011
Pricing is positioning
When I was a junior brand manager in France, I thought myself a local hero…
16th November 2011
Seán Gallagher’s lie
Although every child tries it out, it's pretty difficult to get a lie past your…
15th November 2011
What if Zuckerberg isn’t always right?
Sheryl Sandberg leaned forward, the eagerness-to-please emblazoned on her face at odds with her age,…