Reiver

Think of the children! And Reiver!

Published 6 October 2008

IN Reiver’s distant youth Blue Peter was a calming, soothing presence with only the occasional zoo keeper’s slip on a pile of elephant dung to disturb the peace.

Snap! crackle!

Published 6 October 2008

HE’S had 10 Top 10 hits, 13 Top of the Pops appearances and is the only Cumbrian to have a number one single.

Our history revisited

Published 6 October 2008

The new film version of Brideshead Revisited set Reiver thinking about the Cumbrian connection.

Bet your Botting dollar...

Published 6 October 2008

AS THE credit crunch prompts Reiver to count the pennies, the thought occurs that one might just be in the wrong business.

Daisy can help us all unwind

Published 29 September 2008

Sometimes you think you’ve seen it all. Then along comes something you really didn’t expect – like a meditation technique inspired by the sounds of cows mooing.

Caller’s memory throws our Gory

Published 29 September 2008

CARLISLE United hero John Gorman has a good memory for his football career.

From heights of Helvellyn to a tour of Forthlin Road

Published 29 September 2008

NATIONAL Trust officials are used to dealing with people who want to tour the childhood homes of Liverpool’s most famous musicians – the Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

A whole new ball game for Jimmy

Published 22 September 2008

HOW many of today’s highly paid football stars will go on to have nearly half a century in the game? Most will have the option of retiring early to their mansions and their WAGS to count their cash.

A bit of holiday abandoning...

Published 22 September 2008

Every author drips sweat onto their keyboard in the quest to create a bestseller. Hunter Davies was no exception when he wrote the authorised biography of former deputy prime minister John Prescott.

Let’s paws for a reality check

Published 8 September 2008

Credit crunch? What credit crunch? Amid the talk of rising food and fuel prices and soaring bills, it’s encouraging to see that some people – and animals – can still splash out for the finer things in life.

Do we need these scrubbers?

Published 8 September 2008

THERE are some right scrubbers wandering around the Lake District these days.

A world away from the league of millions

Published 8 September 2008

EVEN if Carlisle United one day return to English football’s top tier, you somehow can’t imagine the Premier League’s leading lights travelling up for the first game of the season, disembarking from their train at Penrith and setting off on foot to complete the rest of the journey to Brunton Park.

Heaven is a place on the pitch, Belinda

Published 8 September 2008

A Cumbrian playing for their local team always goes down well with the fans, but it seems Carlisle United have taken local links a step further.

Did Andrew’s signwriter not have the time to stay for t?

Published 1 September 2008

WHEN Andrew Johnston took the stage for his triumphant homecoming at Carlisle Live he must have wondered who the “Andrew Johnson” was whose name he saw up in lights behind him.

Geography: 0 out of 10

Published 1 September 2008

ONE might expect The Times Educational Supplement to be scrupulous in its fact-checking. And one would be sadly mistaken.

Frying wingers tackled by EU

Published 1 September 2008

Could a bunch of pub footballers be about to receive a visit in the dead of night from Brussels’ finest Eurocrats?

TV cops on the beat in county?

Published 1 September 2008

WHY would an episode of 1980s crime drama Dempsey and Makepeace feature Cumberland?

All at sea over map of Carlisle

Published 25 August 2008

THOSE of us who live in Cumbria like to feel we’re important enough for the rest of the country to have some idea of who we are and what we do.

Cheap talk

Published 25 August 2008

“I am tired of ageing rock stars like Mick Jagger being held up as an icon for pensioners. Why not Frank?” – Janet Street-Porter on the “slightly potty” Frank Evans, a pensioner from Salford, who has returned to the Spanish bullring after a quadruple heart by-pass“I’m stupefied” – London mayor Boris Johnson on learning that he is a direct descendant of George II“I am an innocent man” – Gary Glitter “People think of Barbara Cartland and they think of a pink blancmange” – actor David Warner “We are all philosophers. It is impossible to live and not be a philosopher. Life is philosophy” – Guy Ritchie, husband of Madonna“Shakespeare is all based on beat, rhythm and rhyme and all those things that rappers deal with” – actor Sir Ian McKellen“A cancer on the face of education” – Dr Martin Stephen, high master at St Paul’s in London, on exam league tables“The odd thing about Gordon Brown is that he would have been a great statesman in the 19th century, but in this televisual age, with his glowering demeanour, his blind eye and his introversion, he is out of time” – AC Grayling, philosopher, writer and broadcaster “The question is not do I believe in God. The more important thing now is does God believe in me?” – pop maverick Bill Drummond