James Joyce wrote Ulysses in Paris, Trieste and Zurich: that’s where he went wrong. Thus has relocated to Ooty, Tamil Nadu, 8500 feet up in the Western Ghats to write the definitive work on robot shops, the tribes of Bethnal Green and anything else that fills up the page. In the spirit of Zen and the [...]
Author Archives: John Kelly
Writing about Brick Lane, in a hill station in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu
December 25, 2011 – 12:18 pm
Layla and other assorted love songs from Fez
June 4, 2011 – 3:33 pm
. . . from the opening shimmering, evocative western and Arab strings followed by an extraordinary tympani high on the ramparts by a slip of a girl knocking seven mighty shades out of a colossal tambour. I was hooked from that moment on.
Hints On Self-Preservation when Attacked by a War Dog
May 21, 2011 – 4:38 pm
“…if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines.” Edgar Rice Burroughs.
The person you have called is not available, loser.
May 16, 2011 – 3:24 pm
PS. Not that anyone should give a monkeys, but the twatter suing Twitter is flying down the wing in a red shirt at the age of 38. His opportunist lawyers should be red carded for giving him such bad advice and ruining his hitherto – deserved – reputation for level headedness.
Unique Will and Kate wedding souvenirs at Brick Lane Robot Shop
April 27, 2011 – 12:37 pm
Although not overtly monarchist – the Brick Lane Robot Shop has nevertheless bowed to public pressure and issued its own unique Will and Kate souvenir wedding memorabilia. In line with our recent policy of shameless product placement, our Will and Kate wedding statuette has also been inducted to the rapidly-expanding Thus Quality Hall of Fame. [...]
Space Evil proves Japan’s superiority to China
April 17, 2011 – 5:25 pm
In my twin roles of Quality guru and tin robot tycoon, I’m in a unique position to settle the debate as to whether China will unseat Japan as the manufacturing powerhouse of the global economy. In terms of sheer volume, there is no debate: China is already big boss. But quality? If you want a wobbly [...]
Yuri Gagarin table lamp blasts into Thus Magazine Quality Hall of Fame
April 12, 2011 – 5:13 pm
50 years to the day after orbiting the earth for 89 minutes in a tiny capsule jettisoned from the mighty Vostok 2 rocket, Hero of the Soviet Union Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin was awarded another gong. A plastic table lamp constructed in his honour has been inducted into ThusMagazine’s Quality Hall of Fame. The event, widely leaked on [...]
From Hero to Zero, is Gaddafi the new Whacko Jacko?
March 23, 2011 – 8:35 pm
Though I hate to say I told you so, this Thus post from August 2009 “Where’s Gordon Brown in the Libyan Desert Storm?” deals at length in customary erudite fashion with the extraordinary rehabilitation of Whacko Jacko Gadaffi, his socialite son Saif, erstwhile cocktail guest of both Mandelson and Osborne and the strange silence surrounding the [...]
Sindhi truck art tin trunks win Thus Quality Award
March 21, 2011 – 10:06 am
With feeble and insincere apologies for the interruption in the awards process, I am delighted to announce that The Robot Shop’s Sindhi truckers’ tin trunks have passed all the tests and blasted into the Thus Quality Hall of Fame. Only a loony or a Hounyhym (Thus passim) could find any fault with these life-affirming and unique [...]
Names not numbers, Thus Spake Portmerion
March 15, 2011 – 2:33 am
….actually, not true. For once, I listened without fidgeting and kicking the seatback of the person in front. Except during the breaks, over breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, in the bar, walking on the beach, on the bus, where I talked too much – I blame the coffee – listened and enjoyed the company of a [...]