First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 7th August 2020 I know it might seem odd to wax lyrical about a financial institution

Author. Speaker. Journalist. Presenter
First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 7th August 2020 I know it might seem odd to wax lyrical about a financial institution
In week seven of her lockdown diaries, Jane struggles to stay alert… First published in the Isle of Thanet News of Friday 15th May 2020 Saturday It
At midnight on 31st December I was travelling by car through the bottom of Broadstairs. In Ramsgate, minutes earlier, they’d been spilling out of pubs,
Proud to see that in the final copy of the Isle of Thanet Gazette I appear in, I have made it onto the letters’ page
WELL DONE the TUC for voting to prohibit employers from forcing women to wear high heels at work. Heels may look terrific but in my
As I reach for my hard hat and flak jacket, here is my latest Gazette column… Whoever first said you only regret the things you
Poor old Northamptonshire County Council has come under fire for putting on a course entitled How to Tie a Scarf. The three-hour session – a
It’s going well so far, isn’t it? As I write, the big property funds have been forced to suspend trading, we’ve lost our triple-A credit
I woke up on Saturday morning feeling strangely unwell. I mentally ran through what I’d eaten the night before and counted up the glasses of
So it’s finally here. After all the weeks of posturing, scare-mongering, claims and counter claims, the referendum is finally upon us. Come Thursday we can
My latest Plain Jane column. The version that came out in print – and online – was mysteriously lacking my last sentence. Is it that dreadful
Celebratory times! Manchester City make the last four in the Champions League, the Queen – longest serving British Monarch – hits 90 (Happy Birthday Your
In these difficult and joyless times of conflict, health scares, national obesity and George Osborne, may I take the rare opportunity to look on the bright
“We’re almost there–” proclaims the latest shrink-wrapped brochure from Stone Hill Park, above a photo of children hopping, somewhat bizarrely, in sacks, through fields of
Channel Four’s Michael Crick started it, the Electoral Commission is looking into it and now, according to Mr Crick’s blog, one Michael Barnbrook from Ramsgate,
In a spirit of better late than never, we are posting this anyway even though half of it is now past its sell-by date. But
SO THERE went summer. I know it goes more quickly as you age and grow grumpy but this one really has sped past at an
If we live in a small world then Thanet is microscopic. Hold forth in the pub about the bloke from the garage and it will
DEPRESSED by pub closures and the rise of alcopops? Good news is at hand. Sales of the cheap-booze-and-coloured-sugar drinks favoured by overgrown children are falling.
My esteemed colleague, Mike don’t-get-me-started Pearce, has been on one of his jaunts. I don’t ask for details – they invariably involve pinball machines, model
I didn’t see the rides at the opening of Dreamland. The wait was too long, the speeches too protracted and when the ribbon had finally
SO FAR this year, what with speaking and interviewing and literary festivals and running off to bang my head against a different wall, I have
I HAVE been self-employed now for nigh-on 30 years and have long suspected this has rendered me utterly un-hireable to anyone in the usual (some
OH DEAR! It seems I haven’t got off to the best possible start with our new Kipper council. Let’s hope I don’t require a new
I interview the Tory hopefuls by adopting police tactics. Sir Roger Gale has been in politics for half a century and the MP for Thanet
Continuing our series in which Jane Wenham-Jones meets the candidates, this week: Labour… THERE is a framed cartoon by Giles on my writing-room wall that
Continuing our series in which Jane Wenham-Jones meets the candidates, this week: the Greens… I was initially invited to visit the Green candidate for Thanet
Originally published last week but I’ve been away teaching at the fabulous Chez Castillon… HAPPY Birthday Prince George and congratulations on being able to walk.
Regular readers of this column (God help you) will know that my final offering of the year has historically been a round-up of my top
This might not make entire sense to those not blessed with living on the Isle of Thanet but perhaps you would would wish for similar for