From the pages of Strange Skins Digital #4, Claire ‘Moth’ Harris looks at the classic Saturday morning puppet series ‘Star Fleet’. ‘Send a message out across the sky, Alien raiders just past Gemini, Who will come and save us now? … Continue reading Always Daring and Courageous: Claire ‘Moth’ Harris looks at ‘Star Fleet’
It was summer in the back end of nowhere, There were horses and houses all around, She pulled on her sneakers and was running, Just as soon as her feet hit the ground. Pretty soon, she had a job in a book store, Loading Dickens and Tolstoy on the shelf, She discovered the works of Jack Kerouac, But she never discovered herself. Then she met Spring Bob by the duck pond, He was small, but he carried a big sack, Full of blankets and pillows for the hostel on the green, And the collected works of Honoré de Balzac. He … Continue reading Justina
High on a hill lived a man in a house, He dined upon Partridge and Pheasant and Grouse, His home was his castle, He never had any hassle, From a serf or a vassal, Or any Glaswegian or Scouse. He … Continue reading The Ballad of Lonely Albert or Dan
Tom Baker may well be the greatest author our country never had. His autobiography, Who on Earth is Tom Baker? was quite unlike any other book before or since; reading it was a bit like having Tom tell you his life story over the bar of the Dog and Duck, pint in hand, slightly sozzled. It was a masterpiece. He followed this up with The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, a children’s book… probably. No-one knew quite what to make of it, but I loved it. It ended up in the bargain bins very quickly, which just goes to show how … Continue reading ‘Doctor Who – Scratchman’ by Tom Baker
This review was intended for Strange Skins Digital issue #6, but I’m publishing it here as a tribute to Peter Tork, who passed away today. Peter was an important part of The Monkees, sometimes overlooked but always essential. He might … Continue reading The Monkees Christmas Party
I’ve always been slightly obsessed with silent movies and longed to make one, even though the technology and the necessity of the silent medium have been long surpassed. Most people hear of the silent cinema and automatically think about slapstick … Continue reading Remembering ‘The Russian Bride’
Throughout the 1960s, Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation ruled the television for a generation of children. The high-class puppetry technique produced such evergreen shows as Stingray, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and, of course, the immortal Thunderbirds. But although the rocket boosters … Continue reading Strings in the Wind: Growing Up with Supermarionation in the 70s and 80s
This is a story I originally wrote for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, with the Eleventh Doctor in the starring role, but it was never published. Now I’ve taken it out, polished it up and changed it to the … Continue reading ‘Albert’s Story’ by Paul Ferry
There are lots of great new books available for kids today; some of them, unbelievably, weren’t even written by celebrities! You can also get delightful reprints and facsimiles of children’s classics from the golden age of literature. But somewhere in between, mostly (but not exclusively) dating from the 60s, 70s and 80s, is a vast library of forgotten books for children; destined to lie mouldering and unloved on the shelves of charity shops and the cluttered tabletops of jumble sales. What follows is my pick of the lost chapters in the book of children’s literature. Many of these books I … Continue reading 10 Out-of-Print Books Your Kids Should Be Reading
I grew up in the 1970s and, as such, I was obsessed with posters. If you were a kid in the 70s or 80s and every inch of your bedroom wasn’t covered with posters of the Fonz, Star Wars, the … Continue reading Excalibur: A Dream to Some, a Nightmare to Others!
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