Journalism
(August 2008)
It is my first and last day at sewage school. The premises are nothing much to look at, consisting of a Portakabin in the car park of Barston, a small sewage-treatment works near Birmingham. This classroom is one of five run by Severn Trent, one of the 10 utilities that supply clean drinking water and remove dirty water for the people of England and ...
(July 2008)
There are so many tales. The time when a keeper of a lightship went berserk, and the crew going aboard were told to arm themselves with a pick-axe handle. The time, way back when, when there only used to be two light-house keepers, and one died and the other went mad, despite taking the precaution of hanging his dead mate out of the window. ...
(June 2008)
It's the rainy season in Myanmar. It’s also cholera season. When Cyclone Nargis arrived two weeks ago, the waters it unleashed destroyed houses and killed people and livestock. The storm also devastated other things that haven’t made the headlines, but that can mean the difference between life and death: toilets. Even before the cyclone, 75 percent of Burmese had no latrines. Like some 2.6 ...
(July 2006)
The room has that air of little expectancy and resignation familiar to any retirement home. On a screen, the tail-end of a documentary about marine life is still showing. Through the windows, there are perfect green lawns; a golf cart; a US flag. Inside, the elderly audience – ladies and gentlemen, their hair white and their clothes dapper – are waiting quietly for what ...