Terence Blacker

The writer and broadcaster Terence Blacker contributes a twice-weekly column on a wide range of social, cultural and environmental issues. He is the author of four novels, of prize-winning fiction for children, and has written a highly praised biography of the brilliant reprobate Willie Donaldson.

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Terence Blacker: Whose idea of a joke involves sneering at dead people?

Once those in a position to reveal the flaws of those in power become establishment insiders, the world is much less problematical for politicians

Recently by Terence Blacker

Terence Blacker: Pity those who are 'too busy' to read

Friday, 4 February 2011

Those engaged in the great and important campaign to prevent libraries in the UK being closed down could learn a lot from the four-year tussle which has been taking place in Canada between a big-time novelist and a leading politician.

Terence Blacker: Why are we so scared of silence?

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

People are so afraid of silence that they are prepared to have their privacy invaded

Terence Blacker: The upstairs, downstairs society

Friday, 28 January 2011

Pin-striped and in a chauffeur-driven car, Andrew Neil has been driving around Britain in search of privilege. In this week's BBC documentary Posh And Posher: Why Public School Boys Run Britain, he argued that, after a couple of decades of relative classlessness, meritocratic Britain is pretty much dead. It was the closing of grammar schools which caused the problem.

Terence Blacker: Sins of the fathers? Not necessarily

Tuesday, 25 January 2011

The betrayal of family secrets is excused on the grounds that the author is exploring his own sacred self

Terence Blacker: Give prisoners a stake in our democracy

Friday, 21 January 2011

Talking in a prison library not so long ago, I was startled to learn of the prisoners' favourite writer. Almost all of them read, liked and believed the work of David Icke, the former goalkeeper who has said that he is the son of God, that senior politicians are satanic paedophiles, and that the world is ruled by lizard-humans, who include George W Bush, the late Queen Mother and, more mysteriously, Kris Kristofferson.

Terence Blacker: A dream job for a chancer on the make

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

The Hollywood producers said to be competing for the story of the fake eco-warrior Mark Kennedy will have to work hard to turn his sorry tale into a feelgood film. All those involved have emerged with some degree of discredit: the failed undercover cop, his incompetent employers, and the faintly absurd environmental campaigners.