My Emma
Desmond Traynor looks back on his childhood affection for Diana Rigg who played Emma Peel in the Avengers, and made him realise what kind of girl he liked.
Desmond Traynor
My Emma
Desmond Traynor looks back on his childhood affection for Diana Rigg who played Emma Peel in the Avengers, and made him realise what kind of girl he liked.
How Bono Nearly Ruined My Life
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.’ James Joyce, ‘Araby’, from Dubliners (1914) Nineteen Seventy-Nine was a big year for me. I turned eighteen, which meant I could vote, had I felt so inclined. I had my first … Read more
Woody and Annie (and Others) Part I
‘I wish I could think of a positive point to leave you with. Will you take two negative points?’ Woody Allen, from his stand-up comedy routine (1964) Consider the facts: French writer Annie Ernaux has an affair with a young man, thirty years her junior (she was fifty-four, he was twenty-four), and writes about it, … Read more
Woody and Annie (and Others) Part II
What’s my favourite Woody Allen movie? He has directed fifty, churning out one a year since 1982, maintaining a consistently high standard leavened by only occasional dross, so it can be difficult to choose. Another common phenomenon to be taken into consideration in this discussion is how fans of any artist who becomes ‘problematic’ are … Read more
How Far Can We Trust Science?
Science in itself appears to me neutral, that is to say, it increases men’s power whether for good or for evil. – Bertrand Russell (from The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 1914-1944 (1968), Vol. 2, Letter to W. W. Norton, 27 January, 1931). What is Science? That is about as readily answerable a question as ‘What … Read more
Substituting Memory for History in the (Mis)information Age
History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. James Joyce, in ‘Nestor’, from Ulysses (1922) If there is any substitute for love, it is memory. To memorize, then, is to restore intimacy.’ Joseph Brodsky, in ‘Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980) An Obituary’, from Less Than One: Selected Essays (1986) One of the … Read more
Joujouka Redux
My wrist watch stops dead shortly after we arrive in Tangier (at 21:16 – 2/6/2022, to be precise), which is symbolically appropriate. Time runs differently in Joujouka, the rural village located some 110km south of here in the Rif Mountains, for which this urbane, noisy, historically cosmopolitan port city is on this occasion serving as … Read more
Allen Jones: Pulling the Trigger
When it comes to veteran rock journalists, few could lay more genuine claim to the title than Allan Jones. After joining Melody Maker as cub reporter in 1974, with no previous writing experience, but an application letter which concluded: ‘Melody Maker needs a bullet up its arse. I’m the gun – pull the trigger’, he … Read more
My Team / Your Team
In the first part of his essay concerning his enduring lifelong fandom of Manchester City FC, and the club’s current owners’ wealth vis-á-vis his left-wing politics, Desmond Traynor recounts his origin story as a supporter of the club, and offers a critique of the Irish soccer commentariat’s biased attitude to City’s success. After many years … Read more
My Team / Your Team III
In the final part of his essay on the joys and woes of being an Irish Manchester City fan, Desmond Traynor delves into psychological and emotional reasons for sustaining sporting allegiances, through thick and thin. Even if nothing in the foregoing fact-based rant convinces City-sceptics, it is not the main plank of my justification for … Read more
My Team / Your Team II
Desmond Traynor continues his analysis of the financial and political morality of top flight English soccer, and attempts several rebuttals of the frequently voiced criticisms of Manchester City’s current success. That was the attack. Here is the defence – bearing in mind that attack is often the best means of defence. (The middle ground will … Read more
Liking Lockdown
The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone. Martin Amis, in an interview with The Paris Review (1998) The empty streets, quiet from dawn to dusk and beyond. No noisy, polluting rush hour traffic, or at any other time of the day. No shuffling, stifling crowds of commuters … Read more
On (the) Money
If you follow me baby I’ll turn your money green I show you more money Rockerfeller ever seen Furry Lewis, ‘I Will Turn Your Money Green’ (1928) First of all, it is good to have some of it. Second of all, it is good to have enough of it – which means not too much. … Read more
The Most Natural Thing in the World III
To tell you the truth, I could easily have been a father, and I would be a father now, had my wife J not miscarried a baby we once made. This was in 2002, so he or she would have been eighteen by now. So strange to envisage it: another life – for me, for … Read more
The Most Natural Thing in the World II
Are you satisfied now, ladies and gentlemen, you counsellors and therapists of all stripes, with my do-it-your-self-psychoanalysis? Despite my disdain for the so-called misery memoir, it is time to declare: my childhood was better than being brought up in an industrial school, or by an alcoholic or physically abusive parent; but, certainly by today’s ideals, … Read more
The Most Natural Thing in the World (I)
Build me a cabin in Utah Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout Have a bunch of kids who call me “Pa” That must be what it’s all about That must be what it’s all about Bob Dylan, ‘Sign On The Window’, from New Morning (1970) When I was eighteen, during a summer spent working … Read more