Eclectic House,
Utopia Gardens,
Soho, London W1 4NK
The editor keeps a low profile on the website, but his role is to stop the columnists fighting each other and try to make sure they do some work. You can contact the editor, or any of the staff using our Contact Form.
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Our lovely office building, more commonly known as Eclectic House, is near Soho Square in the West End of London.
We also spend rather a lot of time in the Saloon bar of the Rat and Conker public house, where the very gregarious host Raymond provides capably for our extensive gin requirements while his friend Raul does spectacular and imaginitively unique Tapas.
Arts and Media Editor Simon is an ugly, bitter man and an unabashed snob, although it's not clear exactly what it is he thinks he has to be superior about. He lasted almost two terms of his degree course in Modern Languages and Art History at a Polytechnic which now calls itself a University and he has been sacked from just about every job he's ever done. Simon's biggest strengths as a journallist are his ability to drink vast quantities of alcohol, his unwillingness to write anything nice about anybody or anything and his clever and subtle combination of total conviction in his writing with utter cowardice, which means he will back down at the slightest hint of a Libel action.
Film, Music and Television Reviewer Alex got his degree in Television Studies at a top former college of further education. His genius as a journalist comes from his trademark technique of reviewing films without bothering to watch them and albums without actually ever resorting to listening to them.
Food, Restaurants and Nostalgia Michael is a veteran food and drink writer, whose ugly, fat face is unwelcome in restaurants up and down the country. Michael can hold his own, and indeed often does, when it comes to going to the pub with the other staff. He's written for all the big papers and magazines in the past and his reputation for having never bought a round of drinks has elevated him to almost legendary status among his fellow journalists.
Political Correspondant Andrew's dedication to getting the political low-down will often see him camped outside Number Ten, patiently drinking cans of super strength lager, until the early hours of the morning if necessary.
Sports Desk The Binge is over six feet, five inches tall, but weighs only twelve and a half stone. He used to play up front for Grange Road Juniors FC, where his remarkable basin of blond hair marked him out to spectators and oppostition alike. His equally remarkable eye for goal was demonstrably absent in almost every match. A singularly bitter man, Binge likes nothing better than to poo-poo the achievements of professional sportsmen and women in order to make his own sense of abject failure more bearable.
Wine and Travel Gilly is a well-travelled woman who is almost as posh as she is drunk, which is to say that she's extremely posh indeed. She's currently away on a travel asssignment, but is due out of rehab in a couple of weeks and rumour has it that she's eager to get back to her wine, and travel columns. Here at Eclectic house, her unique journalistic style has earned her the respect and admiration of none of our staff.
Computing and Science Fiction His real name is Lionel Scrannage, although he prefers to be known by the above name. His main responsibilities are running Eclectic House's arcane computer system, writing pieces about sad, weird stuff like Doctor Who and Star Trek and to be bullied by Simon who has known him since they were small children.
Staff Journalist Amanda Shadbolt is our newest staff writer and will cover anything and everything. She tells people she's from Manchester, and in fact makes a really big thing about it and likes to pretend that she's really working class. In reality she's from Wilmslow in Cheshire and her parents paid for her to go to University, where she just about passed a degree in English, after two attempts. Amanda's main bugbear is her conviction that BBC Radio Five presenter Victoria Derbyshire has unfairly got the plum journalism job that is rightfully hers. Her passion for the profession means she's not afraid to step outside the law now and again. She has been arrested numerous times in her career including the time she threw her three-quarter full Bacardi Breezer bottle at a woman she mistakenly thought was Miranda Sawyer in a Manchester bar, and more recently for pouring paint on the car of a woman she mistook for Dido.
