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: We are the real savages of the show
The celebrities-in-a-wood show is back on TV. A Page Three girl has eaten a kangaroo's testicle and was worried, rather touchingly, that she might become pregnant. The show is a sort of annual ritual which follows a predictable routine – the pretty one in the "jungle" strips down to a bikini, the mad one gets madder, the presenters giggle on the sidelines, and so on. Outside, familiar controversies are revisited, too.
Recently by Terence Blacker
Terence Blacker: Demonised - and sentimentalised
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Our attitudes to children are dangerously confused
Terence Blacker: It's enough to make me cry... in private
Friday, 14 November 2008
The great blubbing debate has just moved to a new, decisive phase, with those of us who hold that crying in public is almost always a form of showing off in danger of being swept away on a tide of tears.
Terence Blacker: Dame Joan has a battle on her hands
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
A British Obama might be unthinkable. But so is a British McCain
Terence Blacker: Golf madness is killing the countryside
Friday, 7 November 2008
These are hard times for the old-fashioned, money-making operations that were all the rage until a few months ago. It is now a time of doubt and questions for investors. Is the business plan sound? What effect will it have on the local environment? Does it have an unacceptably large carbon footprint? Will it face opposition from planners and councils?
Terence Blacker: We're living in the Great Age of Panic
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
It is as if we need to be afraid of one thing or another in order to feel alive
Terence Blacker: Driven to despair as I wander in the seventh circle of call-centre hell
Friday, 31 October 2008
They are usually polite. They introduce themselves by their first names, and address you by yours. They assure you at every opportunity that they are there to help you. Then they take you into a nightmare world where all normal standards of behaviour are reversed and nothing is quite what it seems.
Terence Blacker: When did bullying become acceptable?
Tuesday, 28 October 2008
It is a rather bewildering contradiction of our increasingly peculiar society that, while cruelty in everyday life is the subject of unprecedented disapproval, it is positively celebrated and encouraged in the world of entertainment.
Terence Blacker: Censorship Beijing would be proud of
Friday, 24 October 2008
Predictions that those organising our Olympic adventure would learn important lessons from the way the Beijing Games were run have turned out to be alarmingly true. In east London, a local council has been enthusiastically adopting the Chinese solution to dissent by suppressing it.
Terence Blacker: We're in the grip of money madness
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
It's as if only when considering our incipient doom do we feel fully alive
Terence Blacker: John Prescott on the class system? Psychologists please take note...
Friday, 17 October 2008
Almost every syllable he utters reveals a basic insecurity
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Columnist Comments
• Andrew Grice: The Chancellor must consider tax hikes.
Despite the weight on his shoulders, the Chancellor remains remarkably calm.
• Howard Jacobson: The lesson of Hitler's deformity.
So Hitler actually did have only one ball. I call that a pity for history.
• Deborah Orr: Praising the public on pointless decisions.
People power, as it pertains to television anyway, is proving to be a tricky beast.
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1 Kabul 30 years ago, and Kabul today. Have we learned nothing?
2 Howard Jacobson: Read more literature and less history. That's the lesson of Hitler's deformity
3 Rupert Cornwell: Formidable opponent is now the best choice
4 Robert Skidelsky: What would Keynes have done?
5 Robert Fisk: Making movies the Afghan way
6 Leading article: The overwhelming case for a major economic package
7 Robert Fisk: Once more fear stalks the streets of Kandahar
8 Johann Hari: Charles as President? Not in my name
9 Deborah Orr: It's easy to praise the public on decisions that don't matter
10 Andrew Grice: A cool Chancellor must consider putting up taxes
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1 Kabul 30 years ago, and Kabul today. Have we learned nothing?
2 Howard Jacobson: Read more literature and less history. That's the lesson of Hitler's deformity
3 Robert Skidelsky: What would Keynes have done?
4 Rupert Cornwell: Formidable opponent is now the best choice
5 Leading article: The overwhelming case for a major economic package
6 Rupert Cornwell: Where can the Republicans go now?
7 Amy Jenkins: A dose of Noughties realism – and therapy that works
8 Deborah Orr: It's easy to praise the public on decisions that don't matter
9 Feargal Sharkey: When we rocked the Kasbah, the band was bigger than the crowd
10 Simon Carr: Mr Keynes' funny farm... a bullock outfoxes the fox
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