Cinema advertising company Pearl & Dean has been sold for £1. It was famous for its theme tune, but the adverts it made for local businesses were a cultural milestone in themselves.
Continue Reading Add comment April 23rd, 2010
A far more devastating eruption 227 years ago wiped out a fifth of the island’s population.
Continue Reading Add comment April 16th, 2010
The exact history of the Turin shroud, which has gone on display for the first time in 10 years, is hotly disputed.
Continue Reading Add comment April 12th, 2010
In a pretentious moment, one might call Hardy a writer of terroir.
Continue Reading Add comment April 3rd, 2010
While some achieve absurd job titles all by themselves, others have absurdity thrust upon them.
Continue Reading Add comment February 26th, 2010
The recall of thousands of Toyotas with potentially faulty pedals raises a terrifying scenario – what should you do if the accelerator on your car jams?
Continue Reading February 4th, 2010
Huddles of street smokers outside office doorways could be extinguished under new public health plans. But it could also put an end to the comradeship of pavement puffers.
Continue Reading Add comment February 2nd, 2010
There are few more visceral mindgames for the competitor than swordplay, whose conventions and violent history seem so far removed from modern life.
Continue Reading Add comment January 23rd, 2010
Climate naysayers sent out a collective whoop of delight. E-mails hacked from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit had proved that the theory of man-made climate change was a scientific conspiracy.
Continue Reading Add comment December 17th, 2009
Climate scientists are like an exotic tribe – fascinating, sometimes hard to understand and rarely visited.
Continue Reading Add comment November 21st, 2009
Tom de Castella is a freelance journalist and writer based in London, UK.
To get in touch please email tomdecastella@yahoo.com