‘Smoking is a private, not a public issue. If the state can be induced to take its hands off smokers, iconic artist David Hockney will deserve much of the credit.’

Guest post by John Staddon, professor emeritus at Duke University and author of Unlucky Strike: Private Health and the Science, Law and Politics of Smoking, with illustrations by David Hockney.

Sad to hear that David Hockney has died, aged 88. One of Britain’s finest artists, he was a guest at several Forest events, including a private dinner at Boisdale and a reception at the House of Commons.

My favourite memory, however, was the day he travelled to Brighton to speak at a fringe meeting organised by Forest at the 2005 Labour Party conference where we were protesting against the proposed smoking ban. More on that below.

The World Cup kicks off on Thursday.

What follows are some personal recollections of previous World Cups beginning (where else?) in 1966. Please note that this post is (a) quite long, and (b) written for my own amusement. I don’t expect anyone else to read it!

Sorry to hear that Bobby Tambling has died, aged 84, although, to be fair, that’s an age many of us would be happy to reach.

I suspect that few if any people reading this will have heard of him but he was one of the first professional footballers I was drawn to as a young boy.

Spent last week in Majorca (aka Mallorca).

It was our first visit to the island which might surprise some people because Majorca has been a popular holiday destination for Brits for decades, but perhaps that’s what put me off.

Arsenal yesterday celebrated the club’s first Premier League title since 2004. A parade in north London attracted hundreds of thousands of supporters, and good luck to them.

I remember going to watch a similar victory parade after Chelsea won the Premiership in 2005. I took my son, who was eleven at the time, and we waited patiently at Parsons Green in Fulham for the two open-top buses to arrive.

Does anyone genuinely enjoy a heatwave? Like most people I like sunshine and warm-ish weather but beyond that not so much.

In the UK a heatwave normally means three or more days during which the temperature exceeds the mid 20s (Celsius). Above 30 (and without air-con) it becomes uncomfortable. Hit 40, as it did on two or three days in 2022, and it’s a struggle.

Yesterday didn’t go entirely to plan.

At 11.10 I boarded a Thameslink train to London where I was scheduled to have a meeting followed by lunch with Ranald Macdonald, MD of Boisdale Restaurants.

The journey to Kings Cross or St Pancras normally takes an hour. However, 30 minutes into the journey (at 11.40) the train stopped at Arlesey, a small station north of Stevenage, where we were told someone had been hit by a train at Stevenage and there would be a delay.