Terence Blacker

The journalist and critic Terence Blacker writes a twice-weekly topical column. He is the author of four novels and his children’s books have been published in 18 languages. Blacker’s most recent book was the highly praised biography You Cannot Live as I Have Lived and Not End Up Like This: The Thoroughly Disgraceful Life and Times of Willie Donaldson.

Terence Blacker: What your feet say about you

At a basic, romantic level of human interaction, reading feet can be useful

Recently by Terence Blacker

Terence Blacker: Protecting a country gone to the dogs needs licences help

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

By now the story has become such a media archetype that it almost writes itself. There is the grim housing estate, the baby-sitting session that turns into a nightmare, the traumatised aunt or grandparent, the shocked neighbours, the remorseful parents.

Terence Blacker: Planting trees is a facile option

Friday, 27 November 2009

A sapling stuck into a pot is presented as a private little planet saver

Terence Blacker: Science must never be political or emotional

Wednesday, 25 November 2009

At about the same time as a dastardly hacker was stealing the email archive of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, a senior member of the same faculty was addressing a group of villagers in south Norfolk. The professor's themes were energy and climate change, matters of particular interest in a part of rural East Anglia which could become an industrialised hub of renewable energy, and the point of the meeting was to bring scientific fact to bear on what had become an emotive subject.

Terence Blacker: A great day for famous do-gooders

Friday, 20 November 2009

For celebrities, highly visible charity activities are a good deal

Terence Blacker: Look out, the locals are revolting

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

Positively the last word on the strange saga of Elizabeth Truss, the Dave's Darling would-be MP for south-west Norfolk, and her run-in with the Turnip Taliban: it was not about sex or even about using Google.

Terence Blacker: Do celebrities have all the answers?

Friday, 13 November 2009

A loss of faith in conventional medicine leads us to new 'gurus'

Terence Blacker: Reality TV police shows are criminal

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

For half an hour, the real world is presented in unquestioning black-and-white terms

Terence Blacker: A guide to the new eco-religion

Friday, 6 November 2009

Once the church of Green Faith exists there will be no room for agnostics

Terence Blacker: The heroic career of an unserious man

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

Someone surely should commission a biopic based on the bizarre life of Gyles Brandreth, that Zelig in the world of contemporary celebrity. For more than 50 years, Brandreth has played the fool in one way or another, modifying and varying his act and career as the culture around him changed.