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John Sturgis

John Sturgis

The Spectator

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Tosh and Becks / The Beckham rumour that refuses to die

I first heard it in the spring of 1999 from a bloke who was sitting behind me at a West Ham game. It concerned David Beckham and Victoria Adams of...

31.05.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Low Life / Our strange relationship with columnists

I’ve been reading newspapers since I was a teenager and have become strangely familiar with those who write about their lives, even though I’ve...

20.05.2024 30

The Spectator

John Sturgis

There is nothing common about the northern lights

It was 10.45pm and our film had just finished. I checked my phone and saw a friend claiming he had just seen the northern lights — in Wembley. It...

11.05.2024 30

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Football / The stupidity of the ex-pro pundits

It was the most dramatic moment of the whole football season. Having trailed 3-0 to the millionaires of Manchester United in their FA Cup semi-final,...

26.04.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

In praise of peculiar names

It began, as these things often do, in the Births, Deaths and Marriages column of the Times. ‘On 29th February, to Olivia von Wulffen and Rupert...

27.03.2024 6

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Love Desert Island Discs? Try this

In its primary Sunday morning slot, Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 finishes at noon. This is the cue for radio cognoscenti to turn the digital...

19.03.2024 6

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Desert Island Discs / Could the BBC sink it?

Desert Island Discs is 80 years old and to celebrate this milestone the BBC has planned an event unprecedented in the show’s long history. It is...

06.03.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The tyranny of the 20mph limit

I was still thinking about the film when I came out of the cinema and got into my car. I can’t have exceeded 28mph. On this wide, well-lit, almost...

13.02.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Pure of hart / Have I been cursed by a white deer?

It was standing completely still, about 40 yards away, partially obscured by a clump of hazel: a pure white deer. It looked almost iridescent in the...

05.02.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Glenn Hoddle and the birth of cancel culture

Most England managers lose their jobs over bad results: Roy Hodgson was sacked after being humiliated by Iceland, Graham Taylor for losing a must-win...

30.01.2024 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Sven-Goran Eriksson / How he made English football

The former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has terminal cancer, he says he expects to be dead before the year is out. In an age when such...

23.01.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Englishness / Why are writers obsessed with Tunbridge Wells?

It’s just a moderately sized town in Kent, but Tunbridge Wells seems to have a literary status disproportionate to its size. And, perhaps as a...

19.01.2024 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Deluge / Ten novels about flooding

Shropshire was named this week as an unlikely entrant in the top ten global dream travel destinations for 2024 – alongside more predictable...

10.01.2024 5

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The strange return of Cilla Black

She was an unlikely contender for fame from the outset, with a pub singer voice and a nose so  prominent she would later have it surgically...

03.01.2024 7

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Post-Christmas slump / How to survive it

Elizabeth David was a cookery writer who led the British palate away from the grim days of stodgy, post-war rationing towards the adoption of a...

27.12.2023 20

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Fairytale of the Duke of York: Shane MacGowan’s life in pubs

Shane MacGowan spent much of his life in pubs, working in them, drinking in them, performing in them – even living in a couple. He would have...

20.12.2023 40

The Spectator

John Sturgis

Glam rock / The strange life of Alvin Stardust

He had mutton chop sideburns, a vast quiff and was dressed in black leather, even down to murderers’ gloves, over which he wore enormous silver...

05.12.2023 10

The Spectator

John Sturgis

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