John MacLeod

United Kingdom

Columnist, Writer-at-large at Daily Mail

Journalist, Writer at large at Freelance

Articles

JOHN MACLEOD: Heinz Salad Cream...I wouldn't even use it to grout my bathroom

1 week ago | dailymail.co.uk | John MacLeod

It was invented around 1750 by William Oliver, a Somerset doctor; it was the great grand-mammy of all water-biscuits – the plainest, thinnest, high-baked crackers, traditionally enjoyed with cheese – and they graced even the late Queen’s table. She had perhaps another reason to cherish them. At the height of our battle for national survival, in 1940, the Crown Jewels were broken up and secreted away.
I wouldn't even use Heinz Salad cream to grout bathroom

1 week ago | msn.com | John MacLeod

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JOHN MACLEOD: As Spring unfolds in all its glory, will this be the year I finally catch a salmon?

2 weeks ago | dailymail.co.uk | John MacLeod

There are years when spring has to be dragged in chains, kicking and screaming, to do what it says on the tin. In 2015 we had frosts far into May, over the brown and leafless Highlands. In 2021, April brought serious Hebridean snowfall. Only a fortnight ago we were still racked with chill afternoons and sleety showers. And then, just last week and at the turn of the month, spring exploded all about us, in full and blazing exuberance, as if someone had pulled the toggle on an inflatable life-raft.
JOHN MACLEOD: I can whip up a mean version of KFC

3 weeks ago | dailymail.co.uk | John MacLeod

Simon Hopkinson is one of Britain’s most genial, unpretentious and esteemed chefs. As a young man, he became a particular pet of the late, great Elizabeth David – especially as he had the sense, in her presence, to never to mention Robert Carrier, a name guaranteed to have her chewing carpets.
JOHN MACLEOD: The prosaic little pill that might have saved my great-gran Annie from an insidious killer

1 month ago | dailymail.co.uk | John MacLeod

In 1915, in a township near the Butt of Lewis, Mrs Annie Thomson, thirty-two, was delivered of her third baby and her first son. There was natural rejoicing. But, within a day or two, she was unwell. Shortly, she was gravely ill – high fever, delirium, wracked and shaking. Medicine at that time could avail little, and shortly she was dead. The death certificate attributes it to ‘puerperal fever.’ Today, doctors would call it post partum sepsis.
JOHN MACLEOD: The prosaic little pill that might have saved my great-gran Annie from an insidious killer

1 month ago | thisismoney.co.uk | John MacLeod

In 1915, in a township near the Butt of Lewis, Mrs Annie Thomson, thirty-two, was delivered of her third baby and her first son. There was natural rejoicing. But, within a day or two, she was unwell. Shortly, she was gravely ill – high fever, delirium, wracked and shaking. Medicine at that time could avail little, and shortly she was dead. The death certificate attributes it to ‘puerperal fever.’ Today, doctors would call it post partum sepsis.
JOHN MACLEOD: In praise of the humble soap opera

1 month ago | dailymail.co.uk | John MacLeod

Annabel Goldie’s six years as the first woman to lead the Scottish Tories were capped, from the House of Lords, with surprising success in government: she retired in 2023 after four years as Minister of State for Defence. But, in her first break-out role, she took her weekly jousts with Jack McConnell – and then, on more chucklesome terms, Alex Salmond – very seriously, studying the week’s events on the eve of every FMQs and devising delicious zingers.
JOHN MACLEOD: The year of chained up swings and wrong dates on wedding rings. But we would not stand for it again

1 month ago | dailymail.co.uk | John MacLeod

Five years on, the fading archaeology of our initial Covid terror is still with us. Worn, printed footprints on city pavements, from those months of obligatory social distancing. The rags of checkered, wasp-hued scene-of-crisis tape trailing, still, from street furniture. The high plastic screens around the fags-booze-and-gambling kiosk at my local Co-op have yet to come down. The other day, I pulled open a drawer in my bedroom.
JOHN MACLEOD: Aberdeen's recovered after its nasty bout of irritable vowel syndrome

1 month ago | dailymail.co.uk | John MacLeod

Several years ago, after some bucolic column about pine-martens, I was thrilled to receive a warm email from The McGillycuddy of the Reeks. I had hitherto assumed that splendid title to be but fiction. A whimsy straight out of the warm imagination of P G Wodehouse. In fact, Donough McGillycuddy, 85, umpteenth of the ancient County Kerry title, is very real, most pleasant, stems from a lineage older than that of the Royal Family and cares deeply about pine-martens. Names are funny things.
Island folk are still the happiest in Britain

2 months ago | msn.com | John MacLeod

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