Tag Archives: felix dennis

Lights go out at Personal Computer World

TO THE CLACHAN in Kingly Street to attend the wake of British magazine Personal Computer World (PCW).

Practically every hack that worked for the mag over the years was there – Guy Kewney, Simon Crisp, Barry Fox, Manek Dubash, Clive Akass – heck the packed gig was full of people and I was there because I gigged as a freelance for PCW in the early 1990s.

The magazine was a real force to be reckoned with for many years, and it’s a shame to see a fine publication go.  It’s another example of the schizzy problem big publishers have – they know that online is the way to go but are fettered with existing paper publications with all the overheads, including distribution and printing, that go with that.

It was great to see some familiar faces again, and I wish all the guys the best in the future.  The magazine was latterly owned by Incisive – that company bought the assets of VNU UK, the publishers that bought theinquirer.net from me a few years ago.

* Guy Kewney said Peter Jackson tipped up. I missed him. I don’t think Felix Dennis, the founder of PCW who has a gaff on Kingly Street managed to make it. He was on the flannel panel until the end.

I captured George killing the Dragon

BACK FROM the weirdness of Oxford, (see yesterday) I had to go down near the Post Office Tower (POT) to see some people and naturally noticed that Fitzrovia has changed quite a bit.

Fitzrovia doesn’t seem nearly as prosperous as it used to be as it was when the Central Middlesex Hospital – it moved from Cleveland Street quite a few years ago  – was still going and catering to doctors, to nurses, to administrators, to patients, to ambulance folk, and to the whole caboodle. Middlesex has moved, and a fine building has been reduced to rubble, bit like Bangalore.

Still, the George and Dragon – see pic below – is sufficently prosperous to have commissioned a new painting of Mr George killing a Dragon. Dennis Publishing is still down there, but the really worrying thing is that the square which used to be cobbled and was the home of Virginia Woolff and George Bernard Shaw seems to have been tarmacaddemed! Pictures below.  Also our mate Tony Dennis’ office was in Cleveland Street, and Dennis Publishing moved from Bolsover Street to Cleveland Street quite a few years ago. The big question is: “Are Felix Dennis and Tony Dennis somehow related?” ♦