Rowan Pelling

@KatyaTaylor I think the one on the left is almost worse because it's striving so hard for effect. It made me want to laugh and not in a good way.

Bloody hell. This is so depressing.

@Richard23287873 I am definitely pro the unicycle measure. National policy.

@RowanPelling Ah, the memories - Ridicule, Screaming Lord Sutch, Ceefax, Auberon Waugh. Thank you. Now could we apply the unicycle rule to Cambridge cyclists (some with electric motors) and scooter riders who do not respect either pedestrians or the "No cycling" signs?

Count Binface stands in a long and noble tradition of British electoral pranksters – silliness underpins our humour – but there's a serious underlying point.

@prodnose It's right up there in my top five musicals of all time. I saw this production at Regent's Park and adored it.

Just got in from seeing the revival of Jesus Christ Superstar. I first saw it 54 years ago when I was 15 and went about seven times subsequently. I was right to. It is still an absolutely mesmerising absorbing experience. Do go if you can.

@thewheythetruth @HadleyFreeman I've long remembered a South African-born mum who was in Addenbrooke's (Rosie Maternity) with me and said in tears it was third world. I told her this one of our better hospitals. She'd had a suite in SA for her first birth... private, I presumed.

@RowanPelling @HadleyFreeman In Norway, your whole family can be admitted to essentially a hotel suite when early labour starts; the supervision from midwives gradually increases, you give birth, and then are cared for together in the same room until you’re ready to leave. Medical help there if needed.

It is outrageous and entirely unsurprising that so many working in maternity care still vaginal birth as more important than giving birth safely. I wrote about this almost a decade ago in reference to the RCM and various weirdo commentators theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…

No. Never. I made it clear that the state of our maternity services (even back in 2004) was so poor that my choice was either an elective c-section or a home birth. Choice/safety is everything. But I did come to see, via talking to some of the nation's most experienced (and kind) midwives that normal/natural birth was not some freakish impossibility. I've also watched in horror as ever more babies have died due to myriad shortcomings and I fear that if the biggest culprit, and headlines, after each report cites "natural birth", the problems I mentioned in my last comment will be underplayed. Why are women sent home early, left alone in labour, not listened to, denied c-sections etc? It's almost always an overstressed system, staff shortages and money. Under-experienced people left in charge. Women being shortchanged as we are over everything to do with our uteruses. A friend in Sweden had three midwives in attendance. Ditto one in Holland.

@RowanPelling Unless you were advocating for 'normal birth' whatever the cost to mother and baby, you were not one of the weirdo commentators x

@FaberBooks Oh no. She was utterly wonderful and such an original. That is very sad news indeed.

We are so sad to hear that Joanna Mackle has died. As a legendary Publicity Director and then Publishing Director at Faber for twenty years she was central to the publishing successes of the late 1980s and 1990s. Our thoughts are with her family and friends.

@horton_official A hosepipe? At Simpson's. How times have changed.

Perfect birthday dinner at Simpsons-in-the-strand, even though my nephew decided to restyle my hair and makeup by spraying me in the face with a hosepipe shortly before I left

I have met a few people who went to the pub decades ago and swore that they remember me behind the bar. As for Chez Moi, that really was the only club going when we were young, wasn't it. Though a bit of a drive if you were coming in from Toys Hill and failed your driving test thee times. Friends would take me.

Well that would have been an amusing path crossing 30-years ago surfaced by technology. My friends and my visit would have been an evening - I only remember once attempting to spring our Bedgebury two during the day. We remember we were supposed to be somewhere else (Chez Moi has been mentioned but we’re fuzzy on the point) but didn’t manage to get away from the F&H that evening. Radio 3 would have been a bold choice by your mother for an evening, even then, wouldn’t it?

In the mid-90s, after we gained the glorious freedom of driving licences, we six - four boys from all-boy schools and two Bedgebury Brainiacs - travelled Kent enjoying whichever pubs were mentioned or we came across. We did visit the F&H, we think only once. I asked the old set if anyone remembered a young barmaid: “you were the teenage boys, you’re more likely to remember that” which is fair and we don’t think you were there @RowanPelling

Come to the @idler Festival at Fenton House in July –ruddy marvellous with its quirky and inspiring mix of talkers. Where else do you get authors, musicians, philosophers, dancing masters and bee keepers, all mixed up in an orchard in Hampstead?

@DrMatthewSweet I've only read The Woman in White and The Moonstone (some time ago) and loved both of them. What should I try next?

Last night I became a new patron of the Wilkie Collins Society. I did my DPhil on him 30 years ago so I’d love to know who’s working on him or reading him now - with a view to organising an event. Who’s a fan? (And here’s a link to the Society website.) wilkiecollinssociety.org

@ianosburn @teamdb I've written something on rude landlords for the Telegraph, as a tribute both to Norm and to my dad - I'll post it here when it's up.

@RowanPelling @teamdb How sad. More of the old colour disappears, as it must. I hope Grazia and his family find some relief in thoughts of what he would have made of the matter and of any tears shed.

A good read. Pubs as social infrastructure is excellent framing of their worth thedrinksbusiness.com/2026/06/steven… Bravo @teamdb As you were saying @RowanPelling

I was enchanted by the new "Marilyn Monroe: a Portrait" show at the @NPGLondon somehow they conjure freshness and joy from what could easily feel over familiar. The range of photography is SUBLIME. Here's my review for @Telegraph telegraph.co.uk/photography/wh…

@mo_bakshi @EmSilverwood91 @markrwilliamson I sometimes get off my bike because I feel so intimidated by the "electric bike" and motorbike crowd. I'm amazed there hasn't been a death yet - it's a fatal mix of pedestrians and motorised bikes.

@EmSilverwood91 @markrwilliamson @RowanPelling absolutely this. As we were filming, this happened perhaps around a dozen times over a 90 minute period?

On point & timely from @RowanPelling given my chat with Francisco Campis. Mown down by 3 teenage motorcylists. He was on a bicycle but once he shared his story, dozens shared their own tales of being hit while walking in Cambridge. You need eyes in the back AND sides of your head

THIS. Have you noted Phillipson has cut the extra funding to state IB schools in order to champion more STEM? IB is the last bastion of modern languages and a broad curriculum with arts. My older boy went to the best comp in the country Impington Village College for 6th form, which does IB. Labour's cutting it off at the knees. Ditto Parkside in Cambridge.

Enoch Powell vs Thatcher on the humanities. I agree with Powell

@GavrocheTheCat @markrwilliamson They truly are, clogging up our cities' arteries.

@markrwilliamson @RowanPelling Delivery bikes are an absolute scourge

‘Cambridge is a cycling utopia but a death trap for pedestrians’ - @RowanPelling telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/3…