I'm my third and final post in tribute to the great Stanley Unwin, I give you what is basically magic mushrooms for the ears!
Professor Unwin meets the voice of Bill and Ben, Peter Hawkins, in a feature for the TV show, Points of View.
Greetings and welcode. Deep joy.
Norman Balon, legendary landlord of Soho's Coach & Horses and self-styled rudest landlord in London, has left the stage at 99. A fixture of Soho life for six decades and forever woven into the mythos of Jeff Bernard via Keith Waterhouse and Peter O'Toole. A long life, well lived.
Alan Rickman had a voice that could make even the simplest line sound memorable. What made him special, though, was the intelligence behind every performance. Villain, hero, or something in between, he always seemed to understand the character.
“For more than a decade, the small hilltop city of Preston in Lancashire has been the site of a leftwing experiment in taking back control. Its council has redirected much of its spending towards local companies, persuaded businesses to pay higher wages and promote diversity, collaborated closely with local public sector institutions and encouraged cooperatives and other collective enterprises that empower residents. It has sought to turn a rundown, ex-industrial place previously dominated by outside corporate interests – the kind of place found across Britain – into a more self-reliant, dynamic, democratic and equal city.
The Preston model”, as it’s reverently known in leftwing and municipal government circles, has attracted attention around the world. In 2023, the medical journal the Lancet found that after the introduction of the council’s policies, “the prescribing of antidepressants and prevalence of depression decreased” in Preston, and residents “experienced a 9% improvement in life satisfaction and 11% increase in median wages … relative to expected trends [in] other similar areas”.
https://t.co/nOYF71UNJT