Tag Archives: Big Brother

We Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America Book Review

Posted on by

weknowallaboutyoubookreviewWe Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America by Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones.

Privacy has become a big issue. Everything we do on the internet is tracked and even the NHS sells our records. We Know All About You is a book which charts the history of surveillance. From the first ID cards- given to slaves for passage- to McCarthyism and blacklists, and then Snowden and the NHS. A lot of it is shocking, if not surprising. The information of corporate blacklists that ruins workers lives is sad and damning. The real surprise comes from private surveillance however. I think most people are aware of times the government has abused its power, but private detectives and private video cameras are more popular than ever. In fact, most of the cameras around George Orwell’s home were put there by private citizens. Surveillance is bigger than ever before and it is mostly used to sell us something. It is all rather depressing and in my opinion there is no such thing as privacy anymore. We Know All About You is a brilliant and well-researched book. Entertaining and engaging, it tells the story of surveillance, a subject that could have been dull, in a compelling way. Highly recommended.

We Know All About You shows how bulk spying came of age in the nineteenth century, and supplies the first overarching narrative and interpretation of what has happened since, covering the agencies, programs, personalities, technology, leaks, criticisms and reform. Concentrating on America and Britain, it delves into the roles of credit agencies, private detectives, and phone-hacking journalists as well as government agencies like the NSA and GCHQ, and highlights malpractices such as the blacklist and illegal electronic interceptions. It demonstrates that several presidents – Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon – conducted political surveillance, and how British agencies have been under a constant cloud of suspicion for similar reasons.

We Know All About You continues with an account of the 1970s leaks that revealed how the FBI and CIA kept tabs on anti-Vietnam War protestors, and assesses the reform impulse that began in America and spread to Britain. The end of the Cold War further undermined confidence in the need for surveillance, but it returned with a vengeance after 9/11. The book shows how reformers challenged that new expansionism, assesses the political effectiveness of the Snowden revelations, and offers an appraisal of legislative initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic.

Micro-stories and character sketches of individuals ranging from Pinkerton detective James McParlan to recent whisteblowers illuminate the book. We Know All About You confirms that governments have a record of abusing surveillance powers once granted, but emphasizes that problems arising from private sector surveillance have been particularly neglected.

We Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America is available here.

The Most Searched 2012

Posted on by

 

who did brits search for in 2012?

TULISA HAS THE X FACTOR, KATE AND HARRY REIGN, VIC PENDLETON GOES FOR GOLD AND BIEBER LOSES HIS GRIP AS BING RELEASES ITS UK MOST-SEARCHED LISTS FOR 2012

 

Bing UK searches show 2012 was a year in which Britons clamoured to see more (literally) of their favourite people than ever before. The search engine today releases its most-searched lists, based on the aggregation of billions of search queries conducted by Brits on Bing.com this year.

 

Singer Tulisa Contostavlos shows she has the X Factor as the UK’s most searched person in 2012, beating 2011 winner Justin Bieber, who dropped to fifth place this year. And while Tulisa’s singing career and role as X Factor judge no doubt inspired many of these searches, the leak of a certain video in March might also have played a part.

 

It was also a big year for 2012’s second-most-searched person, Kate Middleton, with not just the Royal Wedding but some unauthorised holiday snaps sending people online in their droves to find out more. Prince Harry also got people searching after his right royal Vegas antics. The third in line to the throne was the UK’s sixth most-searched person, behind Cheryl Cole, the late Whitney Houston and Justin Bieber.

 

Robert Pattinson, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile round out the top 10.

 

In the afterglow of the Games, it’s to be expected that Olympics and London 2012 were the most-searched events of 2012, with Olympians leading the most-searched sports stars list. Gold-winning cyclist and Strictly Come Dancing star Victoria Pendleton raced to the top, followed by sprinter Usain Bolt and gold medallist tennis star Andy Murray. Stricken footballer Fabrice Muamba was the fourth most searched sportsperson, with heptathlete Jessica Ennis in fifth place.

 

Most-searched celebrity couple Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart kept Britons guessing with their on-again, off-again romance this year, but their new movie, Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2, could only muster fifth place in the most-searched movies list, with the top spot taken out by The Avengers. EastEnders beat out reality TV rivals Big Brother and X Factor to become 2012’s most searched TV show.

 

Bing UK Director of Search Dave Coplin says: “Every year, the Bing search results give us a unique insight into what and who is top of mind for Brits. It’s always fascinating to see which celebrities have had the biggest impact on Britons throughout the year, and of course it’s no surprise to see that the 2012 Olympics and Olympians have captured our hearts and minds after such a golden summer.”

 

See below for more fascinating insights into what Brits searched for – from fashion to Facebook to food to festivals – this year on Bing.com.

 

2012’s most searched people
1.       Tulisa Contostavlos

2.       Kate Middleton

3.       Cheryl Cole

4.       Whitney Houston

5.       Justin Bieber

6.       Prince Harry

7.       Robert Pattinson

8.       Rihanna

9.       Kim Kardashian

10.   Jimmy Savile

 

 2011 results1.       Justin Bieber

2.       Kim Kardashian

3.       Lady Gaga

4.       Jennifer Aniston

5.       Pippa Middleton

6.       Katy Perry

7.       Kate Middleton

8.       Tulisa Contostavlos

9.       Scarlett Johansson

10.   Angelina Jolie

 

2012’s most searched sports stars1.       Victoria Pendleton

2.       Usain Bolt

3.       Andy Murray

4.       Fabrice Muamba

5.       Jessica Ennis

6.       Tom Daley

7.       Cristiano Ronaldo

8.       Lance Armstrong

9.       David Beckham

10.   Mo Farah

 

 2011 results1.       David Beckham

2.       Ryan Giggs

3.       Lewis Hamilton

4.       Andy Murray

5.       Maria Sharapova

6.       Wayne Rooney

7.       Cristiano Ronaldo

8.       Usain Bolt

9.       Jessica Ennis

10.   Jenson Button

2012’s most searched events

1.       Olympics

2.       London 2012

3.       Euro 2012

4.       Diamond Jubilee

5.       Paralympics

6.       Wimbledon

7.       Tour de France

8.       Hurricane Sandy

9.       US election

10.   Leveson Inquiry

iggs

2012’s most searched movies

1.       The Avengers

2.       The Hunger Games

3.       Prometheus

4.       Skyfall

5.       Twilight Breaking Dawn II

6.       Dark Knight Rises

7.       The Amazing Spiderman

8.       Snow White & The Huntsman

9.       Taken 2

10.   The Dictator

 

2012’s most searched TV shows

1.       EastEnders

2.       Big Brother

3.       X Factor

4.       Doctor Who

5.       Coronation Street

6.       Strictly Come Dancing

7.       The Only Way Is Essex

8.       Celebrity Big Brother

9.       Game of Thrones

10.   The Walking Dead

 

Most searched social networks

1.       Facebook
2.       YouTube
3.       Twitter
4.       LinkedIn
5.       Tumblr
6.       Spotify7.       Pinterest
8.       Myspace
9.       Instagram
10.   WordPress

 

 

Top searches:

Celebrity couple               Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart

Celebrity wedding           Jessica Biel’s pink wedding dress

Celebrity death                 Robin Gibb death

Celebrity divorce              Katie Holmes divorce

Celebrity baby                   Robbie Williams baby pics

Celebrity pregnant          Imogen Thomas pregnant

Celebrity chef                    Jamie Oliver

Girl band                              Little Mix

Boy band                             One Direction

Lyrics                                     Call Me Maybe

Festival                                 V Festival

Fashion brand                   Next

Store                                     Argos

Supermarket                     Tesco

Football club                      Liverpool FC

Movie trailer                      Skyfall

Politician                              David Cameron

US politician                       Barack Obama

Car model                           Nissan Qashqai

Car make                             BMW

Airline                                   Ryanair

Holiday destination         Turkey

Viral video                           Gangnam Style

Diet                                        Cambridge diet

Recipe                                  Pancakes

Astrologer                           Jonathan Cainer

Who…                                   unfollowed me

What…                                  car

How…                                   I met your mother


Reality stars face UK’s biggest charity plunge

Posted on by

The UK’s highest bungee jump awaits a group of reality TV stars as they join a national campaign which will see them risk their lives to help raise vital funds for sick and disabled children in the UK.

 

Frances Wood, who shot to fame on ITV’s ‘The Voice’ and X Factor duo, Poisonous Twin, are the latest to join Reality Relief, a campaign supported by an ever growing list of celebrities from hit reality TV shows which has already raised over £10,000 to help provide life-changing support for disabled youngsters.

 

The fearless celebrities will be plunging 300ft towards the ground at Tatton Park, Greater Manchester on Saturday November 24th, as the latest in a series of sponsored challenges which have tested the nerve of contestants from hit TV shows such as Big Brother, The X Factor, The Voice and The Only Way is Essex.

 

Launched by national charity, Caudwell Children, in 2011 Reality Relief aims to help new found stars thrust into the media spotlight use their fan base to help raise funds and make a real difference to the lives of others.

 

Frances said: “Reality Relief is a fantastic opportunity to help raise the profile of Caudwell Children, the charity behind the campaign, and their crucial work helping change and save the lives of disabled children.

 

When I heard about their Reality Relief bungee challenge I jumped at the chance to get on board and take part.

 

I hope people will really get behind the bungee jump and help us make it as successful as possible.”

 

Poisonous Twin member Stephanie added, “We have never done anything like this before but this is a really fantastic opportunity to help raise vital funds that will help change the lives of disabled children.”

 

Trudi Beswick, Chief Executive of Caudwell Children, said “These new stars are not only taking on an incredibly brave challenge, they are putting themselves forward to help raise awareness about the additional support desperately needed in the UK for those with disabilities or life threatening conditions.

 

Sadly it’s a common misconception that specialist equipment such as powered wheelchairs for disabled children are available on the NHS, when in fact families are expected to pay up to £20,000 for the additional support they need.

 

There are also a number of treatments that save lives, but come at an incredibly high price for families already facing the trauma of their child’s illness. We help these families get the treatment they need to keep their child alive.

 

Reality Relief aims to help new found stars make a real difference and we are thrilled to have them join the campaign.

 

We would really like to take this opportunity to wish them the very best of luck and ask that people honour their bravery by supporting their fundraising.”

 

To support Frances visit http://www.justgiving.com/FrancesW or text FRAN49 £(amount) to 70070.

To Support Poisonous Twin visit www.justgiving.com/Poisonoustwin or text TWIN73 £(AMOUNT) to 70070.

 

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding: Alex Knott on Grabbing

Posted on by

The Channel 4 series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding has been a great ratings winner for the TV station, bringing in an average of 7.4m viewers – the highest for any programme on the station since the 2008 series of Big Brother. Aside from being a draw for the public, it has brought a bit more insight into the lives of the Roma and Traveller communities, most of whom are of Irish extraction.

On the back of the programme, the deep-rooted cultural tradition of ‘grabbing’ has reached both the public consciousness and jokingly entered our vocabulary, perhaps a bit like ‘bunga bunga’ has in Italy on the back of Silvio Berlusconi’s wild parties. So what exactly is grabbing and are these girls as promiscuous as their outfits suggest?

Grabbing often occurs at pre-arranged gatherings, often in somewhere like a car park on the site where they live. While grabbing looks very malicious, the intention is not to overstep the mark but to simply assess if the female in question has any mutual feelings. It is basically a mating ritual with the girls slightly like bulls on parade. The boys try to tempt the girls away from their friends and attempt to get a kiss. If the gentleman gypsy is successful, then there is ‘something there’. Otherwise he has to forget it.

At these meetings, the girls dress up in very slutty outfits in a way not dissimilar to a prostitute. It suggests they’re very much looking for action – but their actions and morals are very different from the whorish image they portray. Traveller girls are not allowed to as much as approach boys. Their community believes in the ancient and, let’s face it, dying principle of no sexual intercourse before marriage and girls who break this code have to accept that the are considered ‘dirty’ and risk being left on the shelf.

Watching the show, grabbing can look violent and you can tell that the girls don’t necessarily love the art. Instead, they simply accept it as something that is part of their culture and also as something there appears to be no alternative to. Females are subjected to the ritual until they are engaged, which will typically happen in their late teenage years. One reason for them being engaged and married so young is the low life expectancy. Less than half of all travellers make it beyond their 50th birthday.

It is easy to look askance at the Daily Mail’s moral outrage, but it is fairly obvious for all to see that this tradition is pretty upsetting and degrading to see still going on in 2011. The show doesn’t get to the bottom of the complex cultural traditions behind grabbing. What programme that length does? In 2011 it is difficult to understand it, certainly when the young women involved appear to hate it. Perhaps it is a classic example of “outsiders” not understanding traveller culture, but I doubt it.

Big Brother and the mask of Domingo Cavallo {Carl Packman}

Posted on by

What did the anonymous spy tell his audience who came to listen to him speak on an unrelated topic?: “I’m a spy”. Now, why on earth would one tell an audience one was a spy, when that is precisely the case, and presumably trying to maintain ones anonymity? Exactly because an audience would not expect a spy to admit one was a spy, and so be fooled by the admission, or at least not register the game at hand at all.

What would you do if you were an Argentine Minister of Economy when you were in the government palace in Buenos Aires, protestors outside wanted to tear your head off for screwing things right up, and you wanted to get out?

Slavoj Zizek reminds us:

A supreme case of such a comedy occurred in December 2001 in Buenos Aires, when Argentinians took to the streets to protest against the current government, and especially against Domingo Cavallo, the Minister of Economy. When the crowd gathered around Cavallo’s building, threatening to storm it, he escaped wearing a mask of himself (sold in disguise shops so that people could mock him by wearing his mask). It thus seems that at least Cavallo did learn something from the widely spread Lacanian (ref: Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst and student of Freud) movement in Argentina—the fact that a thing is its own best mask.

This was at a period when Argentine politicians could not even walk around town or be seen in public at all, let alone be seen to buy expensive items from expensive places. The period came to be known as the cooking pot revolution (so called because of the banging of pots in the centre of town by youths and workers dressed in masks).It was in protest at destructive privatisation measures of almost all government owned assets, linking the Argentine peso with the US dollar, lowering import tariffs, and abolishing restrictions on capital flows.

The former president Carlos Menem avoided the capital city altogether, the city mayor Anibal Ibarra shaved off his beard to avoid recognition while Cavallo took to wearing a mask of himself.

Like the spy announcing to a laughing audience that he is a spy, Cavallo took to wearing a mask of his own face (like many other protesters against him) in order to conceal who he really was.

Big Brother, recently, has also learnt that the thing is its own best mask, with the contestant who dressed as a mole, while simultaneously trying to convince other housemates that he wasn’t a mole. And he succeeded. Instead the other housemates voted Yvette, the medical student, who now thinks everyone hates her.

Few of us thought we would see the day when a protest movement in Latin America could be so well imitated, by such popular culture.

Stefans TV Picks; 6th June

Posted on by

Monday 7th ITV3 – 22:00
Psychological thrillers…so much scarier than horror, which is why The Shining is still the scariest movie ever made, and why I shall be watching the first instalment of The Sculptress. First shown in 1996 this made for TV movie stars Pauline Quirke in a break from her time in the long running Birds Of a Feather to play an altogether different kind of character. The Sculptress, based on the Minette Walters novel, is set three years after a gruesome murder of the mother and sister of, now lifer, Olive Martin who was found blood soaked at the scene of the crime. The story of the murder, the trial and the imprisonment of Olive is the subject of a new book by journalist Rosalind Leigh who, after finding out more about her subject and interviewing all involved, starts to believe in Olive’s innocence. A brilliant turn for Quirke and a series that’ll keep you guessing as you follow the investigation, anyone with a penchant for mystery should see this.

Tuesday 8th ITV1 – 22:35
American dramas can often come across as cheesy an fake, full of beautiful young adults looking ponderously out over lakes while an acoustic indie hit plays over the scene (Dawson…I’m looking at you), but every so often they send out something amazing like John Adams or Carnivàle (which EVERYONE should watch). This is what I’m hoping for in the new to air in the UK, October Road. For 10 years, writer Nick Garret has been away from his home town becoming a famous author and screenwriter. After returning home he must handle the reaction of the people he based his best selling book on, try to re-kindle old friendships and after living a pretty full life in his absence, see if he is really able to return to his old quiet lifestyle. With the second episode running straight after tonight’s pilot, lets hope it can hook us right away. The only problem I can see with this is that it clashes with the second half of The Sculptress (ITV3 – 22:00) so it’ll have to be Sky+ one and watch the other.

Wednesday 9th Channel 4 – 21:00
I have an addictive personality, if there’s something I like I will watch, listen to or play it for ages (currently it’s Assassins Creed II and the music of Broadway show Wicked) after today though, I’m pretty sure it’ll be all about Big Brother. I’ve not watched every series, but the ones I have, I’ve been glued too! So tonight I shall be joining Davina and the braying, cheering, condemning and booing crowds as we are introduced to the housemates of the last ever Big Brother. It looks like we’re in for a glorious summer, but between my Xbox, script writing and Big bloody Brother, I aint gonna see any of it.

Thursday 10th FIVE – 21:00
Robert Rodrigeuz is cool, his house is cool, his music is cool, his hat is cool and his movies are supercool. Once Upon a Time in Mexico is the third installment in his (possible homage to Sergios Leone’s Dollars trilogy) ‘Mariachi Trilogy’. Staring Antonio Banderas once again as the nameless mariachi, who is spoken of in Mexican folklore as merely ‘El’ and Johnny Depp as CIA Agent Sands. Based around a loose plot of a military coup against the Mexican President, Once Upon a Time in Mexico is more about the action and the brilliant gun fights that made El Mariachi and Desperado (the first and second in the trilogy) so much fun to watch.

Friday 11th Channel 4 – 19:30
Unreported World has had some horrific episodes showing atrocities from around the globe including slavery, sex trafficking and the plight of people in poor countries. Tonight’s episode travels to El Salvador to tell of the children used as hitmen for the multitude of gangs and who accept the high child mortality rate as part of life as much as they believe in the subjugation and sexual objectivity of teenage girls in the gangs. Never an easy program to watch, but always informative and humbling. Although I find it odd that Channel 4 chose to put this show in a lineup before Glee, Big Brother and 8 Out of 10 Cats, after Unreported World, I’m not sure I’ll be in the right mood for singing and dancing kids, an unpredictable human experiment and Jimmy Carr!

Saturday 12th ITV1 – 18:15
THREE LIONS ON A SHIRT, JULES RIMET STILL GLEEAAMING
I don’t usually like football, but when England play I cant help but get involved, our first game of the season against the USA will be shown live in the World Cup Live, so get some burgers on the bbq and join the nationwide party. This is the only time I get into football so I’m allowed to be excited by it.

Sunday 13th Sky Movies Sci Fi/Horror – 19:20
To coincide with Frost Magazine’s new Retro film reviews I thought a lovely piece of retro cinema would be a brilliant way to end the week, so I bring you The Lost Boys. This 1987 vampire classic revolves around the lives of two brothers, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) as they move to a new town supposedly over-run by vampires. As Sam befriends the self titled Vampire Hunter Edgar (Corey Feldman) the story thickens and after Michael starts showing the sign of vampirism, and with help from Ed, Sam goes on a hunt to seek out the head of a vampiric punk gang, played by a big haired Keifer Sutherland, in an attempt to save his brother. Full of brilliant 80’s humour and an awesome soundtrack, The Lost Boys is a must for any fan of the Retro.

Stefans Top Ten Books

Posted on by

After our Editors put out a call for peoples top ten books, I felt inclined to answer. After picking up reading faster than then my infanthood classmates and having a (some would say) overactive imagination, I’ve always loved *cliché* escaping into books. From biographies of drug traffickers to Bible Psalms, books have always been a big part of life, so here, in no particular order, I give you my top ten. These aren’t the most intellectual books I’ve read (or in the case of A Brief History of Time…tried to read) but their the ones that had the biggest impact on me or the ones I enjoyed reading and re-reading again and again.

American Gods – Neil Gaimen
Quite possibly my favourite book. I was introduced to Neil Gaimen through ‘The Kindly Ones’, the ninth book of his award winning comic book series ‘The Sandman’. After finding out more about his work I went in search of American Gods, and I’m so happy I did. The story of how old nearly forgotten Gods survive on what little worship they can muster, American Gods is an adventure story, a study in religion, a road trip book and is full of undying love, horror, humour and suspense. In my opinion it is literary brilliance.

Blankets – Craig Thompson
This wedge of 582 page graphic novel (that’s quite a bit for a single story in the comic world) was a present from a very good friend. I lugged this heavy bastard of a book home with me, made a cup of tea and started reading….I could not put it down. Taking place over a few years in the life of author Craig Thompson, this autobiographical story is told as recounted memories of his Evangelical Christian upbringing, his first love, his sexual awakenings and his confusing coming of age. Set mainly in the mid nineties, Blankets is full of outstanding emotional artwork and nice references to awesome music (the characters all dig punk and grunge) and took me back to my own teenage years and memories. The only graphic novel I’ve read that brought tears to my eye’s but not the best introduction to the world of comics yet its still one of the best.

Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
For years I heard people talking about how amazing this book was so I thought ‘right…I really should read it’. Those people weren’t wrong. A truly sinister look into a totalitarian future (it was published in 1949) it shows a world where the government have absolute non-negotiable control over everything, including your thoughts, using the moniker Big Brother and have the ability to change history to suit there current outlook without a single question raised from the populace. Growing up in the aftermath of World War II, protagonist Winston Smith has foggy memories of his childhood and after being asked to erase information that would change history he starts to internally question the government’s motives and power. Nineteen Eighty-Four also contain the best ending of a book ever, as soon as I read the last word I was absolutely speechless. Unfortunately, I was last reading it on the way to a film set the other day and I left it behind and my mate is still looking after it for me!

Northern Lights – Philip Pullman
This is one of the best children’s books and a great way to get kids to start reading more than the Beano (is that still going?). The first in Pullmans His Dark Materials trilogy, Northern Lights, now filmed as The Golden Compass, is a proper adventure book. As a young teen I could often be found on sunny days sitting in my room reading about the friendships and adventures of Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon Pantalaimon (everyone in this parallel world has their own dæmon, as they are physical manifestations of their souls). I’m not sure why I’ve always loved fantasy stories, maybe it’s due to me not having a spiritual side, I need them as a way of escaping reality….hmmm, one to ponder.

Mort – Terry Prachett
The fourth in the huge collection of Pratchetts Discworld novels, I have read nearly all of them and loved them all, so it was difficult to choose one to put in this list, so I figured, it should be the first I read. Taking place on the impossible Discworld (a round flat world that rests on the backs of four elephants that stand on the shell of a giant turtle that swims through space!), Mort is the story of a young simple lad with no aspirations who, after the advice given by his father to become an apprentice, is taken on by Death. The nature of Death is explored in Pratchetts own humour filled way while Mort learns the ropes and tries to ignore his confusing feelings towards Deaths adopted daughter. A great addition to this shelf filling series.

American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
This is a scary book! I find watching someone’s decent into madness so much worse than ghouls and monsters, and that is exactly what we get with Patrick Bateman. On the surface Bateman is just another 80’s stupidly rich yuppie investment banker, but we also get an in depth view of his insanity. Beginning with relatively harmless madness with just constantly checking clothing choices and holding in his anger when one of his friends has a better business card than him, Bateman deteriorates through imaging killing to committing horrific acts of violence (if you’ve read it…think back to the drainpipe and the rat *shudder*). American Psycho can sometimes be a difficult read with it constantly explaining in detail every item of clothing of every character and Batemans occasional internal rambling monologues, but seeing as the book is narrated by Patrick it is all necessary to get a complete overview of the character. If you haven’t read it, put aside a few weeks and immerse your self in madness.

Fox in Socks – Dr. Suess
Dr Suess was a genius. His non-sensical tongue twisters designed to help children learn sounds and speech patterns are some of my favourite poetry, and Fox in Socks is a collection of some of his best. I still struggle with the Tweetle Beetles but can recite the story of Luke Luck and his Duck by heart!

Yes Man – Danny Wallace
This is the most dangerous book I’ve ever read, more dangerous than Mein Kampf and more dangerous that The Anarchists Cookbook (the latter of which I’ve read), purely because while reading it you will feel compelled to say yes to anything. While reading this, a friend suggested I attend an Alpha Course, which is why I attend a church every Wednesday to join a group of Christians talk about God (as an atheist, this is annoying, boring and sliiightly maddening!) and why I am saving up for a passport to go to Hamburg, which is an absolute must as I mentioned it on twitter and Danny Wallace himself wrote back to me saying I should do it! YesMan is based upon a year of the authors life in which, after living the life of a recluse for a while, he decides to get more out of life by saying yes to any and every opportunity. A very funny tale of danger, excitement, adventure and eventual love, YesMan is a brilliant feel good book that will make you want to get more out of life. (and er, Danny, if you ever read this, I really wasn’t comparing you to Hitler in the first sentence…it’s the first dangerous book I thought of)

Born Standing Up – Steve Martin
The Jerk, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Dead Men don’t Wear Plaid, all very very funny films, but how did Steven Martin end up there? In Born Standing Up we find out about Steve’s childhood, his first job at DisneyLand, his first foray into the world of showbiz during his stint as shop assistant in a magic shop and his move into stand up comedy. A must for any fan of Steve or the surreal side of stand up (which we find out Steve was one of the pioneers of).

Factotum – Charles Bukowski
I had been out drinking with some friends, my mate let me crash on his settee, and in my insomniatic drunken stupor I fumbled about after everyone had gone to bed looking for something to do. I stumbled across a book and decided it would probably help me get to sleep if I read something. Factotum didn’t help, it kept me awake till morning. Written about Bukowski’s alter ego Henri Chinaski, we see the life of an alcoholic, constantly unemployed writer who cant get anything published even though he knows his work is much better than what is being released. Through half-hearted relationships and his need for cheap wine, Henri’s tale is heart-breaking in a ‘there but for the grace of God go I’ way and a compelling, involving book written by someone with a mastery of words.