At the cutting edge…

We catch up with Nick Hall as he trains for his climb of Kilimanjaro, and encounters first hand the chilling realities of poverty and crime… …just had a knife pulled on me. Was out training for my climb up Kilimanjaro and walking some back routes when I felt some guy behind me. I never like [...]

Amani’s Mission for the Children Of Tanzania

Nick Hall on the terrible reality of child poverty in Tanzania, and how the Amani Children’s Home is fighting against it. Why are there street-children? The reasons children go to the streets are unique to their individual situations. Often there isn’t one simple reason why a child is on the streets. Rather, a combination of [...]

What makes a good book?

Fingertips’ Ian Shine on the clash of cultures; book covers and i-Pads, and the merits of both… Amid the advances represented by Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle I’ve felt like something of a Luddite lately as I’ve made my way through assorted battered paperbacks. Unlike the Luddites I’ve so far not managed to get my [...]

Minority Report

New Columnist Mark Elliott discusses the alarming levels of under-representation in the British Military… Recent attempts by the armed forces to shed their racist image and appeal to religious minorities are failing, according to records held by the Ministry of Defence. Figures obtained under freedom of information laws show less than 1.5% of those working [...]

Not a reason to LOL…

Fingertips’ Nina Massey on the throttling effect of technology on conversation… With approximately 7 billion emails sent daily in the UK and about 1 billion text messages sent weekly, is it any wonder that conversation is a dying art? With email, text messaging and now even social networking sites making it so easy for people [...]

Stars come out to ‘Serve’ in Charity Benefit

Fingertips’ Rebecca Almond reports as a golden BBC sit-com takes over Selfridges…. Stars of Eastenders paid homage to much-loved BBC sit-com “Are you being served?” in a one-day charity sale of the wardrobe of the late Wendy Richard MBE. Renowned London department store Selfridges became a time warp of yesteryear as it was transformed into [...]

Reading Beyond The Reader

Following the success of The Reader at film awards throughout 2009, including Kate WInslet scooping the gong for Best European Actress at the 2009 European Film Awards on Saturday night, Fingertips’ Ian Shine takes a look back at its author Bernhard Schlink’s follow-up book, Flights of Love. The difficulty of coming to terms with Germany’s [...]

Decoding the way for Digital Art

Fingertips’ Sejal Kapadia reports back on the V&A’s latest offering After spending a summer glaring at works by Raphael and Da Vinci, it’s somewhat alarming to walk into an exhibition deemed so “21st Century”. You can therefore imagine the scepticism held towards the new exhibition ‘Decode: Digital Design Sensations’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s [...]

Invaders must die: The return of dance

Fingertips’ music correspondent John Johnston looks at the unstoppable rise of dance on the British pop charts It’s official. With La Roux, Dizzee Rascal and even the Black Eyed Peas getting in on the act, dance music has taken over pop. Dance music is everywhere. Think of Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Bonkers’ – a certified banger and [...]

The Noughties: The Decade of “Bestism”

The noughties has been a decade of many things, but for Fingertips’ Ian Shine it has predominantly been a decade of lists, lists and more lists… As the noughties draw to a close, people inevitably try to wrap up the decade in a convenient package, slap a label on it and sell it off as [...]