John Walsh

Prolific writer and commentator John Walsh contributes two weekly columns to the paper, Tales of the City and BTW, as well as writing features, interviews and restaurant reviews. He has been editor of The Independent Magazine, literary editor of the Sunday Times and features editor of the London Evening Standard. His latest novel, Sunday at the Cross Bones, was published in 2007.

Actress Sarah Quintrell in a superb production of The Railway Children in London's Waterloo

John Walsh: Just keep Gordon off the politics

Consternation and ridicule have greeted the news (on The Spectator's blog) that Gordon Brown is looking for a new career as an after-dinner speaker, and hopes for $100,000 for a night's work. (For $20,000 more, Sarah Brown will come too, either to hand out prizes or stand around looking supportive, like Linda McCartney in the line-up of Wings, but without the tambourine.)

Recently by John Walsh

John Walsh: Justice at last for Eddie Gilfoyle?

Friday, 13 August 2010

Amateur sleuths, and those who sometimes despair of British justice, will rejoice to hear that the case of Eddie Gilfoyle is being submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission

Never in the field of interplanetary conflict

Friday, 6 August 2010

John Walsh: At last it's out in the open. Winston Churchill was so bothered by reports of UFOs interfering with RAF aircraft during the Second World War, he ordered that the encounter should be kept quiet for 50 years

John Walsh: Why does Citizen Service sound so sinister?

Friday, 23 July 2010

So, National Service is back. Obviously not real National Service, where every chap in the nation is required by law to undergo 24 months of military training, square-bashing and army manoeuvres, under the baleful eye of a sergeant-major, as was the case from 1947 to 1960.

John Walsh: This genie won't go back into the lamp

Friday, 16 July 2010

A group of Islamic lawyers has called for the banning of The Arabian Nights, on grounds of obscenity.

Not sure I fancy a pork chop from Amazon

Friday, 9 July 2010

John Walsh: The coming war between Amazon and Britain's superstores to seize a chunk of the UK's online groceries-delivery market promises to be titanic

John Walsh: Geishas might not do what you think

Friday, 2 July 2010

The niche eroticism of the Japanese never ceases to amaze, does it?

John Walsh: 'A poke in the eye for literary criticism'

Friday, 25 June 2010

Craig Raine and Terry Eagleton are distinguished literary gents embroiled in a critical spat.

John Walsh: A restaurant critic turns the tables

Saturday, 19 June 2010

My first time: What happened when we challenged four writers to explore their untapped alter egos?

John Walsh: A film fails if the viewer turns away

Tuesday, 15 June 2010

I don't know when a mainstream film sparked off so much argument as The Killer Inside Me, the noir thriller by Michael Winterbottom. I've had so many heated conversations about it, my head is spinning.