http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/alex-james/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/alex-james/alex-james-all-the-fun-of-the-fair-ndash-the-travellers-way-1814150.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/alex-james/alex-james-all-the-fun-of-the-fair-ndash-the-travellers-way-1814150.html <p>Lines of cars in both directions and where the lines crossed, just outside fudgey, hoity-toity Stow-on-the-Wold was a blat of almost unimaginable ugliness, stuck on the hillside. Civilisation slapped on top of nature like a Post-It note: the travellers' horse fair, caravans and trailers horrible in the rain. It was at least as ugly as Glastonbury – a locust mess of stinks, mud, stick-men with too many teeth, blob women with none. Even as we arrived, before we'd parked the car, our hearts beat faster, a sense of danger, revellers shouting, impatience building with the traffic, the glamour of youth and glimmering thighs specked with mud. </p> Alex James Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/alex-james/alex-james-pear-tree-provides-summers-last-show-1806198.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/alex-james/alex-james-pear-tree-provides-summers-last-show-1806198.html <p>The leaves on the fruit trees are starting to droop, yellow and drop. While dawdling in the garden I spotted, picked and ate a solitary apple, a real beauty that everyone else had missed, high up, hidden by leaves until just then.</p> Alex James Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/alex-james/alex-james-an-october-of-sunny-kisses-and-cute-chicks-1802174.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/alex-james/alex-james-an-october-of-sunny-kisses-and-cute-chicks-1802174.html <p>So much, so many things happening under the golden sun, the best, most comforting sunshine of the year, the stuff of October. Best on the face in the late afternoon when it's dipping low in the sky. Every time it comes it's like a passionate farewell kiss – blazing, amazing between heavy showers and melodramas of wind and heavy grey. Out of the freshly washed sky it comes, brilliant and horizontal through the low windows and casting crisp shadows on inside walls.</p> Alex James Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100