Highlights

Here’s a collection of blog posts that I’ve written over the years that I’m pleased with. They’re grouped by subject, usually with the latest post first.

Album Club

  • The best night of the month — A background and primer on what we do at Album Club, which started in 2011 and has been running every month since. I’ve since formed two other Album Clubs that are always held online, and they all follow the same format.
  • Album Club on Sharp tech — Mentioned by Ben Thompson and Andrew Sharp after I wrote in to one of my favourite podcasts. They had been discussing ways to ‘touch grass’ with friends, and I thought that Album Club was a perfect example.

Technology

Work

Books

When I finish a book, I try to jot down a few notes about it on my blog. Sometimes these thoughts morph into longer posts as I use my writing to work out what I really think. My entire reading list since about 2010 is here, but these are some of the books that led to longer posts:

  • Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma — What do we do with great art by bad people?
  • The McCartney Legacy Volume 1: 1969-73 — A wonderful book about Paul McCartney’s early solo years.
  • How Civil Wars Start — Felt like relevant reading as we approached the end of 2024.
  • Everything You Need To Know About The Menopause — My wife and I were in our mid-40s when I read this; I figured it would be useful to know more about what’s coming down the road.
  • Hitman — One of my favourite posts. I picked up Brett ‘The Hitman’ Hart’s biography as some light holiday reading and had no idea it would be so good.
  • Violent Borders — A book that puts forward the notion that the very concept of a political or physical border is a violent act. Compelling.
  • Why Workplace — Thoughts about the future of work in a post-pandemic era.
  • A Seat At The Table — What it means for a Chief Information Officer to take their place alongside other executive leaders.
  • The Year Without Pants — The experience of working at Automattic, the fully-remote company behind WordPress, back in 2011–2012.

Music

Cycling

  • In May 2015, I took part in a charity bike ride, cycling from London to Milan. We covered around 900 miles through nine countries in nine days. I captured the experience here.
  • Getting started with indoor bike training — Written at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when we were all trapped in our houses. My indoor bike trainer became an addiction for me at this time.

School governance

I was a governor at a primary school for just over a decade, between 2014 and 2024. It was a privilege to volunteer and help out, but also eye-opening in terms of the challenges that schools face. I’d love to return to the role again someday.

  • Fearing Ofsted — I wrote this as I felt as though people didn’t understand just how perversely high-pressured the role of the Headteacher is and how the Ofsted inspection regime was so brutal, with tragic consequences.
  • I’ve also written some tips on recruiting and then on-boarding new school governors.

Travel

Typically photo-heavy posts, documenting trips and holidays.

Miscellaneous stuff

  • Democracy theatre — The post on this site with the most views. Written after attending a meeting of Berkhamsted Town Council in 2016 where they discussed and approved the proposal for a multi-storey car park in our town.
  • A little respect — How to set up an FA Respect barrier at your kid’s football match so that everyone can see the action.
  • Surviving 9/11 — My memories of 9/11, twenty years on.