Feb 5th - March 18th 2006
Sunday Neil North
Saturday Victoria
Friday Shagging
Thursday Buckingham Palace
Wednesday Indentures
Tuesday Buckingham Palace
Monday Horsing about
Sunday 18th March
Obituary Watch: Neil North
Neil North played young Ronnie Winslow, a naval cadet accused of stealing a postal order, in the 1948 screen version of Terence Rattigan's hit play The Winslow Boy.
Fifty years later he played the First Lord of the Admiralty in the 1999 remake. "It would be interesting," states The Encyclopaedia of British Film, "to know what he was doing in the intervening half-century."
Though he never totally gave up acting, North became a prominent antique dealer during those years, while enjoying a colourful life characterised by uncommon enterprise.
North was always an enterprising lad - his niece Sophie remembers stories of his collecting broken glass in Canterbury after the pubs had emptied on a Sunday and selling the pieces to tourists as parts of the cathedral's stained-glass windows blown out during the Second World War.
He settled in the United States after setting up an antique business with a millionaire lover, Charles Gibson, whose family had made a fortune in shrimping.
They lived in a beautiful house near West Point, overlooking the Hudson River, and North, who called himself Lord North (which helped open doors), became noted for his ability to find rare pieces.
After he and Gibson parted, North moved to Palm Beach, Florida, where he raced classic speed boats, then moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico, in 1980.
North's final screen appearance was in a "pub" scene, filmed in Battersea, for Robert DeNiro's The Good Shepherd (2007).
Saturday 17th March
Victoria, Winter 2007
Friday 16th March
"Quick, quick! Who do we know who could get a book together, and into print and - most importantly - into profit, all in the space of just seven days?"
"Hmmm, tall order. The only man I can think of is.."
"Troubled Diva?"
"Precisely."
He said he'd do it, and he did. Seven days after his initial email, Mike's compendium of the best of British blogging is now on sale, sharply timed to donate all of its profits to Red Nose Day.
So why are you still here?Proceed, immediately, to www.shaggyblogstories.co.uk and order umpteen copies now!
Thursday 15th March
Buckingham Palace, Winter 2007
Wednesday 14th March
Musing, as one does, on the vagaries of the human condition, I fell to wondering, not for the first time, about male personal hygiene.
Personal hygiene in general, and downstairs front in particular. And then I thought: "What would it be like if one cleaned one's teeth, and one's cock, in a parallel fashion?"
Brushing, I thought, would not be entirely out of the question - given a very very very very soft brush. Followed, of course, by a quick swill with the equivalent of an anti-plaque mouthwash.
And then I moved onto flossing. And decided to think about something else instead.
(Next week: Ears and arse)
Tuesday 13th March
Buckingham Palace, Winter 2007
Monday 12th March
Overheard at the office
A: And how was your weekend?
B: Oh, riotous in a minor key, I guess. Horse Meat was a bit over the top..
A: You ate horse meat?
B: Horse Meat Disco. It's this sorta pub-bar-club thing I go to most Sundays.
A: Interesting name.
B: Yeah. They were decorating, apparently, newspaper all over the floor, looked down: Horse meat disco. Moved the page and discovered the rest of the headline...
A: Horse meat discovered on sale in local market?
B: Precisely.
A: And is it?
B: Is it what?
A: A meat market?
B: Oh no. Well a bit, I guess. More of a meet-and-greet market if we're honest. Though it has its moments.
A: As per this weekend?
B: Yuss.
......previous week
