Arthur Smith
Arthur Smith
admiring reader review savage
A savage review is much more entertaining for the reader than an admiring one; the little misanthrope in each of us relishes the rubbishing of someone else.
brutally last time until versus
This time it was much more intense. Last year, the contestants were kind of 'us versus Gordon' right up until the end - this was brutally competitive right from the beginning.
built october time
We built it the first time in October 2004 and tore it down when we were done.
provide
Theatricals can be irritating, but will provide a better night out than mobile phone salespeople.
beloved children normally pun tabloid
Only the pun remains. The pun, beloved of Shakespeare, children and tabloid headline-writers, is normally eschewed in the modern, sophisticated circles in which I move.
bought seen slept
Give me the new thing and give it to me now. I don't want that old thing - I've seen it, heard it, bought it, slept with it, loved it, but now I'm bored with the old thing and I'm gagging for the new stuff.
appalling audience break caught female largely men taking tv watching
A female friend who caught me watching Fashion TV reckons its audience is largely made up of slobbering men who are just taking a break from the appalling Men & Motors channel. I don't agree.
advice appalled leave lists pretension summer suspicious terrifying time year
It's the time of year when the literati give advice on what we should be reading on our summer holidays. These terrifying lists often leave me appalled at my own ignorance, but also suspicious about the pretension of their advocates.
travel
Travel books are, by and large, boring. They lodge uncomfortably between fact, fiction and autobiography.
associate decades four hills nearly pampered poets
I've been trekking the hills and lanes of the British countryside for nearly four decades now and I've come to associate my passion with overexcited poets rather than pampered painters.
anyway involve latin noticed positive provincial public stuff teacher
I've noticed that my resolutions involve me not doing stuff that I wasn't going to do anyway so here's something more positive. I'm going to retrain as a Latin teacher in a provincial public school.
although cover following footsteps found last might perhaps poets prototype romantic samuel since typical
The Romantic poets were the prototype ramblers, and I've often found myself following in their footsteps - although perhaps not all of their footsteps since a typical walk for Samuel T. Coleridge might last two days and cover 145km.
figures perfect relaxing rhythm rural
Sky and clouds and trees and little figures relaxing in the perfect rural rhythm of their surroundings: these are the staples of a Gainsborough landscape.
caring content display exists issues itself merely political pun small social
The pun exists in a social and political void, caring nothing for the issues of its day, content merely to display itself in its small cleverness.