Author name: David Parkin

STAYING in is the new going out. Or so I’m trying to convince myself. Currently it is the only option for all of us – unless you are one of those arrogant prats who have convinced yourself that socialising with a few friends inside a “bubble” isn’t doing any harm. A majority of people are […]

NEWS arrives from a wise man. Robert Cockcroft is a former Yorkshire Post journalist who became editor of the Barnsley Chronicle while also writing brilliant restaurant reviews for the YP. He’s wonderful company and always a pleasure to see at any gathering of former staff from ‘Yorkshire’s National Newspaper’. Bob dropped me a note this

IT is a sign of the times we find ourselves in that I attended an online funeral this week. That is not unusual given the current situation, but what perhaps is is that it was the first online funeral I’ve been to and the person who passed away hadn’t suffered with Covid-19. Norman Wasteney was

PERHAPS it’s the effects of the latest lockdown, but I found myself surprisingly emotional during Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony. Standing on the steps of the Capitol, where just two weeks before a rabid rabble had swarmed wearing headgear ranging from woolly hats to combat helmets, MAGA caps to a horned head dress, I saw two

FAREWELL then Michael Apted. There can’t have been many other filmmakers with as varied a pantheon of work as the British director who died last week aged 79. From James Bond movie The World is Not Enough to Gorillas in the Mist, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Extreme Measures and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of

YOU might not thank me for saying this. Happy New Year. I’m a cup half full type of person. But just when we hoped to have put the excesses of 2020 behind us – record numbers of coronavirus deaths and cases and national lockdowns, haphazard and apparently knee-jerk decision-making by those running the country and

I THOUGHT you’d like this photo. In my own mind I think it captures the warmth of my feelings, the Christmas spirit and is, perhaps, a sign of positive things to come, a nod to a brighter, hopeful future. I think I look like those festive images from yesteryear of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra

WILL My Puppies Make Me Rich? I thought that would get your attention. Anyway, more of that later in the blog, I’ve got other things to discuss first. ::: IN a year that has been bleaker than most, there have been some shining highlights. Captain Sir Tom Moore captured the hearts and minds of millions

IF you are going to celebrate the end of a month-long lockdown then head east. I marked the end of the second lockdown of the year by going to Hull and back on Wednesday. But unlike most of my recent trips to this glittering jewel in the Far East, I wasn’t sipping Sancerre, nibbling on

HAPPY Black Friday! Regular readers (yes, you sir) will have deduced that I feel the same about the annual pre-Christmas sales spectacular as I do about adults dressing up for Halloween. A rather tacky American import embraced by those without wit or wisdom. Does that sound a trifle judgey to you? Good. That’s how I