Kester Brewin

Trees sense a moment when the balance between night and day changes. The shorter days trigger the development of a suicidal hormone in each leaf which creeps down the stem to the joint with the woody twig. Here it stimulates the growth of a sphincter of brittle, hard tissue that gradually closes in on itself, [...]

Manuel de Landa, in his brilliant book A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History writes of the two skeletons that humankind have developed. Our endo(internal)skeleton “made new forms of movement control possible, freeing [us] to conquer every available niche.” Later, around 8000 years ago, we then developed the urban exo(external)skeleton, whereby “bricks of sun-dried clay became [...]

Last night I went to hear Peter Ackroyd speak on the South Bank (pictured here), ostensibly about his new book: Thames, Sacred River. It was a fine lecture on the thread of the sacred throughout the history of humanity’s interaction with London’s river, followed by a hilarious Q&A led by the Times’ Literary Editor, who [...]

I have been reading, sitting quietly with, meditating on Richard Deakin’s wonderful book, Wildwood – A Journey Through Trees. Having previous written of his swims around England, this book is simply a series of reflections on the transformative power of this ‘fifth element’. Much of it is taken with stories of sleeping out in the [...]

Mika Brzezinski recently refused to lead with a story about P@&i$ Hi%ton over the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In a similar vein, Wired reported in ‘A Tale of Two Cities‘ that a trawl of the web revealed more interest in the iPhone than the recent triple-attempted bombing on London and Glasgow. Celebrity::Security::Gossip::War :: These [...]

Following up on the recent post about CCTV, I just had to post this story. Am I alone in thinking this is seriously worrying? That we are sleepwalking into a Stasi-style surveillance society? Get your catapults and air guns loaded my friends, the battle starts here. Technorati: BBC | CCTV | Drone | Police | [...]

The other day I was walking along our high street when I saw this ‘mobile CCTV’… tank parked up. They were snapping, so I thought it only polite to reciprocate. It seems we’ve totally resigned ourselves to being discreetly observed at all times. Speed cameras, CCTV, Congestion Charge cameras… I the novel I’ve been working [...]

What a terrible tragedy in Virginia. The families – and whole community – are in my thoughts and prayers as they try to find some way through this. The soul-searching has already begun here. The UK press have been pointing out the all too frequent nature of these such attacks. Guns and stressful modern life [...]

Spent a glorious sunny Spring day on the allotment today. Jonny recently posted a photo celebrating the great weather we’ve had (on and off) recently. And today was another stunner. Having oh-so-mocked, it’s good to see Grace have an allotment now too… In fact there are record waiting lists at most plots across London. I’m [...]

Aggressive. Drivers. Technorati: Aggression | Driving