The Printed Word

Want to get an instant response from a business? Forget  phoning up. You’ll lose the will to live being told your call is important, but not important enough to adequately staff the team at the other end of the line. Forget email. They go to the work placement to dump in the draft folder before they play with their phones for the next two hours. Nope. It’s Twitter. Businesses – or rather their PR and marketing teams – appear to be on code red at all times so they can respond immediately to any complaint. I was in Morrisons the other week. The shelves were depressingly empty. It was 6pm – it felt like midnight. If you shop around tea-time, then  you are used to the sight of empty boxes abandoned for the night shift to slowly get round to flattening and recycling, but it’s still a pain when all you want is something to eat. I can just about live with fresh fruit being in short supply, and ditto cold meats, even if that scunners my plans for tomorrow’s sarnies, bu...

A typewriter going at full speed creates a sound as thrilling and evocative as Casey Jones’ steam train hurtling down the tracks .. . I’m now the proud owner of two typewriters. They’re solid pieces of kit - muckle big beasts which weigh a ton. When you look at the sad state of those early PCs after just a decade or two, these industrial workhorses are actually in fine fettle. One is an Olivetti, one an Imperial. Even the names   take you back to the days when newsrooms resounded to the tap-tap-tap of keys striking paper - a musical chorus which reached a crescendo on deadline day as everyone hit top speed, and the noise levels rose to a level that would have today’s health and safety conscious bairns reaching for headphones. If the phone rang, no-one stopped to give you peace to have a conversation. You just stuck  a finger in your ear or shouted down the blower. Deadline days also brought a remarkable synchronicity as  journalists reached the...

Edinburgh Castle esplanade was emptying when Kylie Minogue met her dancers off-stage behind the big screens. From our seats high up on the right hand side we watched as they did a Highland jig before departing to their tour bus. It was a moment primarily for them - adrenalin still buzzing -  but witnessed by fans waiting to make the long climb back down to earth after a truly smashing gig. A glimpse of just how much they too enjoyed this gig. On the most gorgeous of Scottish summer nights, Minogue brought her Glastonbury show to the capital, and served up a night  that will, in all honesty, be hard to top for sheer entertainment. The warmth between the singer and her audience was clear from the very start. They came to hear her hits. That’s exactly what they got. But they also shared Minogue’s evident enjoyment on the whole evening - from the setting to the sound. This was a show which could easily fit into a residency in  Vegas, but it had a smashing heart ...