*See here, Good as New!*

As my coverage of east Europe grows (e.g. Musical cultures of east Europe and A Czech couple in 1950s’ Tianqiao), I’ve just made a substantial update to my post on Alexei Sayle, with some vignettes from his insightful memoirs in which he recalls the family’s post-war holidays behind the Iron curtain—setting the tone for his later surreal world, both idealistic and cynical.

So following a reshuffle (in the circumstances, perhaps suggesting that of a 1950s’ Politburo), the post now becomes my main coverage of Alexei’s diverse and wondrous talents—with What’s on in Stoke Newington devoted to some of his pithy later aperçus.