Category Archives: Autobiography

Louis exploits Richard’s good nature

Posted on November 8, 2021 by odeboyz

Louis Armstrong once asked Richard Nixon to carry his bags through customs for him because he ‘was an old man’. The bags had marijuana in them.

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Black Lives Matter: Miles Davis 1959: New York City

Posted on October 7, 2021 by odeboyz

Background Miles Davis was a jazz superstar. In this encounter, with a red neck policeman in New York City, it made no difference. All that mattered was white supremacy and the power of the badge. The officer wasn’t sacked for … Continue reading →

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An Awkward Question

Posted on September 30, 2021 by odeboyz

Harpurhey, north Manchester, is a poor area, and was in the 1950s and 60s as I grew up. Rows and rows of terraced houses, with no bathroom or indoor toilet, straddled the Rochdale Road. There were no luxuries, but my … Continue reading →

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J B S Haldane, scientist, organises his very own After Life

Posted on June 14, 2021 by odeboyz

“He [Haldane] had left strict instructions about what was to be done with his body. ‘I hope that I have been of some use to my fellow creatures while alive,’ he once wrote, ‘and I see no reason why I … Continue reading →

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A Pen Portrait of Dylan Thomas (about 1936)

Posted on June 7, 2021 by odeboyz

“That cruel giggle is the thing I best remember about him. He told me how as a boy he delighted in tearing the wings off flies. I said it must be a difficult thing to do. Dylan replied, ‘Maybe I … Continue reading →

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The childhood of Xi Jinping: Chinese General Secretary 2012 – present

Posted on May 24, 2021 by odeboyz

“Xi Jinping started life as a princeling, the son of Xi Zhongxun, Mao’s propaganda chief. But in 1963 Xi senior was purged and banished to a factory in distant Henan province. During the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, the Xi … Continue reading →

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A macabre anecdote about torture

Posted on April 5, 2021 by odeboyz

….St Laurence, who was burned to death on a gridiron, is the ‘patron saint of cooks – and, less obviously, comedians’. I imagine the association with both professions arises from a story which has Laurence…..coolly advising his executioners: ‘I’m done … Continue reading →

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Thirty Minutes That Changed My Life. Leeds, 1953

Posted on March 11, 2021 by odeboyz

As a child I suffered from severe asthma. Leeds, at that time, was a heavily polluted city drenched in soot from factories and domestic coal fires, which was disastrous for people’s health. The result for me was attendance at Junior … Continue reading →

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Yitzhak Rabin: Nobel Lecture 1994

Posted on February 24, 2021 by odeboyz

At an age when most youngsters are struggling to unravel the secrets of mathematics and the mysteries of the Bible; at an age when first love blooms; at the tender age of sixteen, I was handed a rifle so that … Continue reading →

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Councillor Accountability in the 1990s

Posted on August 6, 2020 by odeboyz

Between 1990 and 1998 I was Chair of Havering’s Housing Committee, which I enjoyed hugely. Because so many council tenants exercised their ‘right to buy’* this led to a worrying fall in the Council’s housing stock. This especially effected people … Continue reading →

Posted in Autobiography, housing, Politics | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments