Klockworks by Kate Lock

Eco-Shopper book launch

Kate Lock — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:19:00 +0100

Great turn-out for the launch at Borders in Daveygate, York, last Thursday - and I found a novel way to capture the punters' attention: raffle a wormery!

More press coverage

Kate Lock — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:28:26 +0100

I had a busy few days pre- and post- book launch, with lots of publicity for Confessions of an Eco-Shopper on the radio and in the press.

Carbon footprints: I'll show you mine . . .

Kate Lock — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:36:14 +0100

Carbon footprints - gee whiz, what complicated things they are to calculate. Any formula that requires me to physically locate the 'leccy bill (it was somewhere in that pile on the sideboard, I think ...), let alone start doing maths with it, tends to put me off straight away.

Great reviews for Eco-Shopper!

Kate Lock — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:15:41 +0100

Stop press . . . Confessions of an Eco-Shopper has already had a couple of great reviews ahead of publication day tomorrow (7 August). Not only that, but it's currently the No. 1 shopping guide on Amazon!

Eco-Shopper in the Daily Mail!

Kate Lock — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:26:02 +0100

Confessions of an Eco-Shopper was featured in a double-page spread in the Daily Mail today (Lifestyle, pp48-49). Under the headline, ‘Dying to be beautiful’, the standfirst asks: ‘Are your beauty products killing you? In a new book, Kate Lock reveals what’s really in the bottles’.

Udderly SMOOth and parabens

Kate Lock — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:32:27 +0100

I was Udderly bereft to discover, belatedly - so belatedly, indeed, that I was not able to correct the proofs for Eco-Shopper in time - that the Udderly SMOOth udder cream that I tested DOES contain parabens.

Home to roast? More poultry matters . . .

Kate Lock — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:53:07 +0100

I didn’t taste-test organic or free-range chicken in my book, though I did with some other foods. However, from my own experience I’ve always found birds bred with higher welfare standards have a nicer flavour. But is that just because I want it to?

Chirpy Chirpy cheap-cheap (chicken)

Kate Lock — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:51:09 +0100

Apologies to blog readers too young to remember Middle of the Road’s incredibly annoying 1971 no 1 hit, Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, but it’s kind of appropriate here . . . though I wonder who’s feeling more chirpy about the future of cheap chicken now? I’ve mentioned Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s campaign against intensively farmed chicken in Confessions of an Eco-Shopper in Aisle 2, Challenge 6 (‘Ready meals v proper dinners’), which started with his Channel 4 programme, Hugh’s Chicken Run.

How 'ethical' is Primark?

Kate Lock — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:43:37 +0100

In Confessions of an Eco-Shopper I devote a whole chapter – or ‘Aisle’ as they’re called in the book (it’s structured like a trip around a supermarket) to clothing challenges, including the difficulty of being eco-smart and sartorially stylish on a normal person’s budget. And since a normal person’s budget tends towards Primark jeans at £12 rather than ethical brand Del Forte’s (admittedly lovely) jeans that cost £134, that’s some challenge.

Spring cleaning, unplugged

Kate Lock — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:49:50 +0100

Making little changes really can make a difference. Here’s an example. The other day I decided to pull our fridge-freezer out of its corner to clean the coils at the back because when they get covered with dust and fluff they become less efficient and it uses more electricity and so creates more carbon, etc. I also decided to defrost it because having a freezer compartment clogged up with ice increases its energy consumption

The book is finished at last!

Kate Lock — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:32:40 +0100

I got my last look at the proofs for Eco-Shopper yesterday. A couple of tiny tweaks and that was it, finito. The book’s going to press as I write; no more chances to correct anything or update the content. It’s a relief to finally let go of it, but scary, too. In just over six weeks (7 August, to be exact) it will be out there, no longer my baby but public property.

Patient No 1, York Theatre Royal, May 2008

Kate Lock — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:28:52 +0100

First published on BBC North Yorkshire's website: There is a Doonesbury cartoon that suggests a reason why President George W Bush originally threatened to veto Senator (now Republican candidate) John McCain’s Anti-Torture Amendment back in 2005. It has to do with red-hot coat hangers and frat boys’ buttocks.

REVIEW: UNCLE VANYA, YORK THEATRE ROYAL (4-8 MARCH)

Kate Lock — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:22:14 +0000

First published on BBC North Yorkshire's website: ‘Chekhov . . .’ mused my companion before curtain up at Uncle Vanya, the English Touring Theatre production playing at the Theatre Royal until Saturday. ‘Isn’t he all gloom and doom?’ Clearly, he wasn’t anticipating a fun evening.

AMY’S VIEW, YORK THEATRE ROYAL (Studio), until 1 March

Kate Lock — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:24:21 +0000

First published on BBC North Yorkshire's website: Theatre is dead, declares David Hare’s antagonist, media-savvy Dominic, in Amy’s View. According to the ambitious Dominic, the slick, fast-moving, action-filled medium of television represents the cutting edge and every week he flushes art down the toilet on his TV show to prove it.

REVIEW: WAITING FOR GODOT YORK THEATRE ROYAL, 14, 15 & 16 FEBRUARY 2008-02-13

Kate Lock — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:19:10 +0000

First published on BBC North Yorkshire website Estragon and Vladimir, the two tramps in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, might or might not be a Vaudeville double act fallen on hard times. The bowlers and banter suggest Laurel and Hardy; the clowning, Chaplin and Keaton, the boots, panto laced liberally with Dali.

Brassed Off - Review

Kate Lock — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:32:29 +0100

My Brassed Off Review at the BBC North Yorkshire Website

Brassed Off, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 22-27 October 2007-10-22 Review

Kate Lock — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 23:37:58 +0100

First published on BBC North Yorkshire's website: The Shepherd Group Brass Band is York’s ‘premier league’ brass band. When they play The Floral Dance, the hairs stand up on your arm. The first-night audience at Brassed Off were still applauding the band’s opening number when conductor Danny (Ivan Chaplin) turned round and told them it was ‘crap’. It so patently wasn’t that everyone started laughing.

Video Nation film

Kate Lock — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 02:10:35 +0100

If you've seen my Video Nation film and want to know more about my work as a writer, journalist and composting queen, this is the place.

Grimethorpe Colliery Band, Grand Opera House Sunday 15 July

Kate Lock — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:26:23 +0100

irst published in The Press, July 2007 As a rookie brass band player, this reviewer has had the message hammered home on numerous occasions, ‘You’ve got to be good to play quietly’. Listening to the Grimethorpe Colliery Band go from the furious-and-glorious raise-the-roof volume of Shostakovich’s Festive Overture to a sound so soft it was almost a whisper in Arnold’s Scottish Dances, it was clear just how very good Grimethorpe Colliery Band is.

PS

Kate Lock — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:00:10 +0100

I'm about to dash off to take the daughter to her drama class but I wanted to add a coda to the column in the Press today.

And it's a green goodbye from me

Kate Lock — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 10:38:43 +0100

It's been two years, near as dammit, since I started this column and I've chalked up over a hundred of 'em in that time, so this seems an appropriate time to come to a close. I've got a book to write and a deadline pressing and the one's not getting done and the other's looming ever nearer.

Sun shone on the soggy York Proms

Kate Lock — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:33:56 +0100

I wrote in this column last Saturday that it takes more than a bit of rain - or even a lot of rain - to dampen British spirit. I had not expected, when the plug was pulled on York Proms an hour and a half before the event was due to start because the park was in danger of flooding, to see this demonstrated quite so defiantly.

Come shine or rain, rain, rain

Kate Lock — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:30:54 +0100

What a difference a week makes. Last Saturday, I was slapping on Factor 50; this Saturday it looks like being waterproofs and wellies.

I'm trying to get to the bottom of this Mystery

Kate Lock — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:52:02 +0100

'So what exactly is the mystery in the Mystery Plays?' the husband asked recently. 'It's hardly a whodunit, is it?' I told him he was a Philistine, to which he replied that actually, he was more of a Sherlock Holmes fan, although he's still got a fondness for Morse.

At last, a green wave sweeps through shops

Kate Lock — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 12:49:07 +0100

Isn't is great the way shops are falling over themselves to go green these days? There's Marks and Spencer's Plan A ('Because there is no Plan B'); New Look is selling organic jeans and Tesco is out to flog 10 million low-energy light bulbs within the year. My work here is done. Well, almost.

Finding my inner Babs was just murder

Kate Lock — Sun, 27 May 2007 00:46:09 +0100

I have the greatest respect for actors. Their ability to take on a completely different persona fills me with awe, especially since I can't act for toffee. I was invited to a cast party for an amateur production last weekend and I was very relieved no-one suggested charades. That, however, was before I discovered my Inner Babs.

How to hug when you've just put the knife in

Kate Lock — Sun, 20 May 2007 00:42:07 +0100

There are three things I don't get about The Apprentice (Wednesdays, BBC1), even if it is the must-see show on television at the moment. One: how do the candidates on the losing team have the gall to hug the person who's just been fired after they've stuck the knife into them in the boardroom? (I suspect they're checking to make sure it went in deep enough.)

The York Realist

Kate Lock — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:11:08 +0100

It’s been 11 years since the York Mystery Plays were staged at the Theatre Royal and now they’re back, albeit as noises off, in The York Realist. It’s the 1963 Mystery Plays, rather than the 1996 ones, that form the background to this not-so-everyday story of country folk,

Drumming up support for a right Rotten lot

Kate Lock — Mon, 14 May 2007 22:27:11 +0100

Sometimes - and I have no idea why - my friends look at me like I'm a little eccentric when I tell them what I've been up to. Last week I was late for a literary launch because I'd been samba drumming on compost bins.

Homely drama is more kitchen range than kitchen sink

Kate Lock — Sat, 12 May 2007 22:27:57 +0100

It's been eleven years since the York Mystery Plays were staged at the Theatre Royal and now they're back, albeit as noises off, in The York Realist.