Terence Blacker

Terence Blacker: Something wholesome to feel patriotic about

Published: 05 January 2007

Love of country can be expressed in the butcher's, the greengrocer's, the kitchen

Terence Blacker: Politicians, prostitutes and scruffy morality

Published: 03 January 2007

That old stand-by of British life, class prejudice, has made a terrific start to the new year, with a couple of obituaries that have positively crackled with snobbery. Marmaduke Hussey - "Duke" as he liked to be known (in his famous letters, Henry Root addressed him as "Your Grace") - received a pasting from one obituarist for being less of a toff than he claimed. The young Duke's school fees at Rugby, it was reported with some shock, had been paid by the public purse.

Terence Blacker: Why can't I smoke and be merry?

Published: 29 December 2006

It was a scene that has probably been enacted in varying forms this week in houses across the country. At a moment of post-prandial contentment, the householder lit up a Christmas cigar. A couple of puffs in, he was asked with all the ice-cold moral authority a 12-year-old girl can muster - that is, a lot - to put it out.

Terence Blacker: How geeks became the new sex gods

Published: 27 December 2006

A relatively uncomplicated matter in a changing world, one would think, is the question of what makes one human being physically attractive to another. Beyond that unconvincing chat-show cliché about the most important erogenous zone being the brain, we know that, in the real world, looks matter, and we tend to assume that the basic ingredients of allure remain more or less consistent.

Terence Blacker: Spare a thought for Castro's lonely victims

Published: 22 December 2006

He is beaten, kept in solitary confinement and shackled when allowed out of his rat-infested cell

Terence Blacker: Sex, drugs and shame: a perfect media crime

Published: 20 December 2006

"Yuk," wrote the newsreader Huw Edwards after I'd suggested that broadcasting the BBC news from the site of a bomb blast the previous day was prurient and melodramatic. Coincidentally, the same useful word occurred to me seeing Huw, concerned expression in place, presenting the news last week from the neon-lit streets of Ipswich.

Terence Blacker: Why I've joined the ranks of the non-readers

Published: 15 December 2006

A small number of books stay with you for life and the chances of finding new ones recede with every year

Terence Blacker: Get in touch with your feline mysticism

Published: 13 December 2006

Now and then, the advertising industry latches on to a subtly significant change in the way we live our lives. It discovers that a good way to sell to women is to make men look silly, or that buyers of lager actually like to be told that a brand is "reassuringly expensive".

Terence Blacker: We should not grant privacy to celebrity adulterers

Published: 08 December 2006

Like the ancient gods, the famous act out little parables of human desire and fragility

Terence Blacker: Don't look at me, look at all my good works

Published: 06 December 2006

There will be radio listeners whose self-soothing repertoires have been tested to the limit over the past few days. Those who happen to be thermostatically impaired may even have become disregulated. They had been listening to the 2006 Woman of the Year, Camila Batmanghelidjh, on the Today programme.

Terence Blacker: Men: hedgehogs on an emotional motorway?

Published: 29 November 2006

They can be tricky things, metaphors, when they fall into the wrong hands. Ghastly accidents of mixture and coagulation can occur. They can obscure and confuse, when they were meant to enlighten.

Terence Blacker: A nation in denial about its attitude to booze

Published: 24 November 2006

While other drugs have become the focus of social pressure, alcohol remains essentially cool

Terence Blacker: Why Blair's nanny state might just work

Published: 22 November 2006

A visitor from another planet would find many aspects of daily life in this particular corner of Planet Earth something of a puzzle. Why is it that so many millions of human beings are prepared to watch a small number of people called "celebrities" doing nothing in particular on TV? Who are these "tabloids" who seem to be able to tell those in government what to do next? And what, above all else, are the "yobs" who seem to spread fear everywhere they go?

Terence Blacker: Cameras in the courts will not serve justice

Published: 17 November 2006

The thrill of punishment has put bums on seats since the first gibbet was built

Terence Blacker: A shallow sign of our sanctimonious times

Published: 15 November 2006

A perfect symbol for the times in which we live has just been discovered. A T-shirt which allows those whose idea of a good time is to mime playing an imaginary guitar to someone else's music has been invented in Australia. This easy-to-use virtual instrument "allows real-time music-making, even by players without significant musical or computer skills", says its inventor. Without significant musical skills? The thing is a shirt. What it provides is merely illusion and fantasy in return for no skill or effort or talent at all.

Terence Blacker: The planet will be saved on the playing fields of Eton

Published: 03 November 2006

'Whenever we fly to Gstaad or Mustique, the little chap pipes up with an awkward question about the carbon footprint'

Terence Blacker: Never trust a mutant being from the Divine Lighted Realm

Published: 02 November 2006

A druid healer with the ability to cure cancer, Aids and first-degree burns, he was now working his magic on animals - at the low-cost rate of £1,500

Terence Blacker: There's more to ghosts than just Hallowe'en trickery

Published: 01 November 2006

The house was old, stately and creakily beautiful. No one had lived there for some time. One night, I was awoken by a sound...

Terence Blacker: The pommie bastard's guide to our convict cousins

Published: 31 October 2006

For readers preparing to head Down Under to see England lose the Ashes, here's how to smooth communication with the locals

Terence Blacker: Have I got news for you: satire is the new establishment

Published: 27 October 2006

In the alternative establishment, whose house magazine is 'Private Eye', mockery is both a lethal weapon and an impenetrable defence

Terence Blacker: A gentleman's guide to dating the modern girl

Published: 26 October 2006

On being grabbed in an intimate area with the words 'Grrr, I'll have some of that,' do not recoil or be affronted

Terence Blacker: Being royal for beginners - it's easy when you know how

Published: 25 October 2006

Do have a madcap sense of humour or, if you are a woman, a bubbly sense of fun. Wear a humorous Nazi uniform, have food fights and be a good sport

Terence Blacker: Who says a national icon has to be a nice person?

Published: 24 October 2006

Those who achieve extraordinary things are not normally expected to be agreeable. Talent and huggy loveableness rarely go together

Terence Blacker: The life of a celebrity toddler is not an enviable one

Published: 23 October 2006

In a landmark decision, a judge decrees that the child can stay with his adoptive parents, provided he gives 30 per cent of his fame to his father

Terence Blacker: Act now to stop our evolutionary decline

Published: 18 October 2006

Look to the future, they say. Think of the generations to come. We are but part of a great human continuum. It is the world of our children that matters or even - politicians use this one only when in the tightest of corners - our children's children.

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