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John Sturgis

John Sturgis

The Spectator

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In praise of peculiar names

It began, as these things often do, in the Births, Deaths and Marriages column of the Times. ‘On 29th February, to Olivia von Wulffen and Rupert...

27.03.2024 6

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Love Desert Island Discs? Try this

In its primary Sunday morning slot, Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 finishes at noon. This is the cue for radio cognoscenti to turn the digital...

19.03.2024 6

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Desert Island Discs / Could the BBC sink it?

Desert Island Discs is 80 years old and to celebrate this milestone the BBC has planned an event unprecedented in the show’s long history. It is...

06.03.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The tyranny of the 20mph limit

I was still thinking about the film when I came out of the cinema and got into my car. I can’t have exceeded 28mph. On this wide, well-lit, almost...

13.02.2024 5

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Pure of hart / Have I been cursed by a white deer?

It was standing completely still, about 40 yards away, partially obscured by a clump of hazel: a pure white deer. It looked almost iridescent in the...

05.02.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Glenn Hoddle and the birth of cancel culture

Most England managers lose their jobs over bad results: Roy Hodgson was sacked after being humiliated by Iceland, Graham Taylor for losing a must-win...

30.01.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Sven-Goran Eriksson / How he made English football

The former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has terminal cancer, he says he expects to be dead before the year is out. In an age when such...

23.01.2024 7

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Englishness / Why are writers obsessed with Tunbridge Wells?

It’s just a moderately sized town in Kent, but Tunbridge Wells seems to have a literary status disproportionate to its size. And, perhaps as a...

19.01.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Deluge / Ten novels about flooding

Shropshire was named this week as an unlikely entrant in the top ten global dream travel destinations for 2024 – alongside more predictable...

10.01.2024 5

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The strange return of Cilla Black

She was an unlikely contender for fame from the outset, with a pub singer voice and a nose so  prominent she would later have it surgically...

03.01.2024 7

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Post-Christmas slump / How to survive it

Elizabeth David was a cookery writer who led the British palate away from the grim days of stodgy, post-war rationing towards the adoption of a...

27.12.2023 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Fairytale of the Duke of York: Shane MacGowan’s life in pubs

Shane MacGowan spent much of his life in pubs, working in them, drinking in them, performing in them – even living in a couple. He would have...

20.12.2023 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Glam rock / The strange life of Alvin Stardust

He had mutton chop sideburns, a vast quiff and was dressed in black leather, even down to murderers’ gloves, over which he wore enormous silver...

05.12.2023 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

What’s in a name? / Britain’s curious pub naming conventions

The big London restaurant opening of the autumn has been The Devonshire in Denman Street, Soho, close to Piccadilly Circus. There was a run on...

29.11.2023 3

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The importance of London’s lost cinema

King’s Cross in the eighties was the scabbiest, dodgiest, scariest and most alternative place in central London – and the crumbling Scala cinema...

14.11.2023 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Phil Collins / Against all odds, I’ve started to like Phil Collins

This isn’t easy for me. In fact, it is perhaps the most difficult public admission I’ve ever made. I’m worried about how people will react, how...

06.11.2023 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Better with age / Save our unmessed-with pubs!

From the outside, it appeared derelict – not an uncommon thing to find when visiting an unknown establishment based solely on a listing in an old...

24.10.2023 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Artist Unknown / My quest for a legendary punk mix tape

In the early 1980s, I was a young teenager being drawn into the small music scene of a provincial town. The moment was post-punk – bands like Joy...

17.10.2023 6

The Spectator

John Sturgis

There’s nothing as sad as a bad pub revamp

The Flower Pot in Aston, near Henley, was one of my favourite pubs in the country, a charming, eccentric time capsule cluttered with esoteric...

09.10.2023 8

The Spectator

John Sturgis

40 hours in A&E / Did my wife, 56, really need an emergency pregnancy test?

A team of nurses was trying to ascertain whether my wife was pregnant. It didn’t seem very likely. She’ll be 57 in a couple of months, went...

02.10.2023 5

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Profoundly dull / Arsene Wenger is no philosopher

It’s now five years since he finally stepped down as the manager of Arsenal FC after two decades at the helm – an occasion marked by the recent...

27.09.2023 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Lost lawns / Stop paving over front gardens

It’s a pretty typical 1930s-built semi in the outer London suburbs: four bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, average back garden and...

15.09.2023 6

The Spectator

John Sturgis

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