Alexander Masters

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Alexander Masters

In 1998, at the peak of Ruth Wyner’s career as a manager of bold and innovative projects to help homeless people, a crowd of police officers clattered up the narrow stairs of the Wintercomfort day centre in Cambridge, squeezed into Ruth’s attic office and announced that they had arrested eight of her “clients” for dealing drugs. “Excellent. Well done,” said Ruth.

2 months ago | dailymail.co.uk | Alexander Masters

When Bill Gates was nine, a therapist said he was ‘retarded’. He wasn’t bad at his lessons. It was his voice – he was squeaky. She recommended he be held back a year while she taught him how to develop a ‘big daddy-bear voice’. She made him pronounce the letter ‘r’ as he licked peanut butter off a bread stick.

2 months ago | dailymail.co.uk | Alexander Masters

When Bill Gates was nine, a therapist said he was ‘retarded’. He wasn’t bad at his lessons. It was his voice – he was squeaky. She recommended he be held back a year while she taught him how to develop a ‘big daddy-bear voice’. She made him pronounce the letter ‘r’ as he licked peanut butter off a bread stick.

Oct 25, 2024 | dailymail.co.uk | Alexander Masters

STREET LEVEL SUPERSTAR: A YEAR WITH LAWRENCE by Will Hodgkinson (Nine Eight Books £22, 368pp)Halfway through this remarkable biographical memoir, the little known, eccentric pop singer Lawrence secures a slot at Glastonbury Festival. It’s not on the main stage. That’s for Elton and Guns N’ Roses. It’s in the Bimble Tent. With minutes to go until his performance, Lawrence shows up in the wrong area of the festival, carrying his possessions in a WHSmith multi-use bag.

Jun 9, 2024 | telegraph.co.uk | Alexander Masters

Glaner Braut, an archaeological site near Dötlingen in the Wildeshausen district Credit: Alamy “Filthy Menhirs. I curse them. I curse all stones. I curse the ice that brought them here.” Twenty kilometres into a bicycle trip through the blossomy lowlands of North East Germany, my 10-year-old daughter had had enough.