This morning’s Daily Telegraph carries an obituary for Spencer Davis, the musician who enjoyed considerable chart success in the 1960s. One of his achievements with his band the Spencer Davis Group was to knock The Beatles off the No 1 slot in January 1966 with the Jackie Edwards composed "Keep on Running". Initially, the Telegraph obit said that the Spencer Davis Group had kept The Beatles from the top slot. It is the word “kept” that had to be disputed. The Beatles were not “kept” from the No 1 slot. The Fab Four had been at the top of the charts with their double A-sided single "Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out" for five weeks so were probably due to start their downward trip out of the Top 20. Naturally, I wrote to the Telegraph to point out the incorrect use of the word “kept”. My concern was that anyone under a certain age - say 60 - might not realise that The Beatles went to No 1 with all their...
Boris Johnson - The Gambler Tom Bower W H Allen Boris Johnson has led a colourful life and one would expect this biography to be a colourful read. It is. But as with the proverbial parson’s egg, it is and it isn’t. Tom Bower is an accomplished biographer with subjects such as Tony Blair, Richard Branson, Conrad (and Lady) Black and Robert Maxwell among his subjects. This book covers a lot of ground that with which we are already familiar. His philandering is well known. So too is his fickle relationship with the truth. Even his days at Eton and Oxford with his membership of the Bullingham Club have been covered in the media before. Where Bower comes up with fresh material is at the start (and the time before) of Johnson’s life. His childhood and the insecure family life. The other place where Bower scores is the in the present day. The author goes into great detail of the current Covid-19 crisis and before that Brexit. ...
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