Ruthie Kelner

Ruthie (dad not pictured)

Ruthie - Me & My Dad  "charming"

A regular fixture in my Podcast Diary is the charming Ruthie - Me & My Dad. I'm absolutely bowled over by its relaxed sensibility; that and its Route One approach at getting to the nub of all 21st. Century tribulations; be it anti-Semitism or the Kardashians, Ruth and her dad (Martin) nail it.

Back in 2014 Martin very kindly agreed to do a quickfire Q&A this blog and I thought it would be great if Ruth would like to follow in her dad's footsteps and answer a few questions (nothing too taxing) of her own. She did. And for that I really can't thank her enough.


As Ruth is about to sack it off to Uni and has got some important exams coming up, instead of writing down her answers, she fired them back at me during the latest podcast episode - Eternal Sunshine. Tune in from 02:30. Thank you again Ruth. And Martin.

And while I'm in thanking mode, I'd also like to thank the pair of them for putting me onto Schtum - Jem Lester's account of his profoundly autistic 11 year old son. It's now on on my ever expanding to-read list.

Ready for Take Off?

2019. Starting a New Year. It’s a bit like air travel. Safe as houses; apart from take-off. And landing. Two points at which all bets are off and, if anything bad’s gonna happen, chances are that’s when it’ll all come crashing down. Quite literally. But, even if it looks like you’re running out runway and you swear the pilot has left it too late to lift the nose cone, 99.99% of take offs take off. They do. That’s what I keep telling myself.