Do you hate it when somebody starts a story and somebody else says: ‘That reminds me’…?
Oh dear. Maybe you’ve stumbled onto the wrong site. Because that’s how (what passes for) editorial conference on Gentlemen Ranters actually works.
Anything can be a prompt. For KEN ASHTON, a piece in the paper about a new job for the News of the World’s editor starts a rant that somehow includes buying fish and chips on exes for Harold Wilson.
IAN SKIDMORE is ready to take offence when a parent asks how he started in the job – being improperly dressed can, apparently, be a start; and EDDY RAWLINSON explains why some become scribes, and some become snappers.
ALUN JOHN gets started on how a new newspaper – the Mail on Sunday – got started.
The Tour de ‘France’, starting in London, starts PAUL BANNISTER, who used to work for Cycling magazine (next door to Mick’s Café in the street of dreams) moaning that cycling is going downhill.
And PADDY O’GARA finds God (or, at least, one of His representatives) in the corridors of a newspaper office.
The Guardian reports the building of a statue in Hartlepool in memory of ANDY CAPP, which gets various contributors recalling tales of the greatest cartoon Englishman.
But we are kicking off this week with REVEL BARKER so that the others can tell their tales without interruption – because when these stories get going that bugger can even interrupt himself.
Find all these stories, plus some new Letters to the Editor (not all of them complimentary, PLUS the solution to our query about a photo of top-hatted toffs, from Brendan Monks) by scrolling down, or by clicking on the Archive link at top left.
ranterseditor@gmail.com