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Kate Balding


The Latex lowdown: All you need to know about Hollywood’s hottest trend
Move over shapewear, silhouette has a new BFF. From red-carpet elegance to two-piece menswear, it’s time to take latex out of the...
Sep 10, 20243 min read


Does childhood glory really set us up for success?
In the run-up to the Olympics we take a look at the lasting legacy of children who were pushed, and pushed themselves, to excel. Kids who...
Sep 10, 20246 min read


King Pin
Surely not the 7th already. A coronation in the morning And at the garden, I’m scraping away at life coming up between paving stones....
May 13, 20242 min read


The Hotline podcast, episode 1
Welcome to The Hotline, the 3-part mini-series answering environmental questions coming out of Lewisham, Croydon, Tower Hamlets and Hackney.
Apr 18, 20241 min read


Portrait of resilience #1: meet Hackney’s Daniel Pope
As part of the Climate Refresh series, Eastlondonlines has interviewed four local environmental champions to ask how they stay positive...
Apr 18, 20241 min read


Why we must stop the chainsaws and learn to love our gnarled old trees
With mature trees under increasing threats from developers and disease, is it time to reassess environmentalists' obsession with planting...
Apr 18, 20241 min read


Glancing Back
Someone cleared away the bracken from the old rope swing. Back then it scratched my shin. Today I walked down the slope again rolling...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


The Attic of the Earth
Monument of sand or are you stone? You finger the sky, where once palm plateaued. Hungry for depth, you seduce the sun, Smudging layers...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


The Breeze
There I was, doing fine When I was suddenly assaulted by sadness Hidden in a cloak, covered in The relics of you, Smiling and dancing in...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


Asphyxiation
I get a buzz from the alcoholic smog sitting in my mask I find its sanctuary rum. I nod in my fumes breathing in, Collaterally numb....
Mar 29, 20241 min read


Primrose
Is the sun really so solitary? Does it not have its sister, Moon? Or is the sun a Gemini And he sings counter tune? Two sides mutually...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


A Subtle Dream
We met amongst dull clods of diminishing will Whilst I was down by the stream. Soft and subtle, it possessed, Albeit by quiet means. Yet...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


Conscious Streams
The streams were bickering with each other, running and chanting unbearably I felt. There was too much motion and the volume was rising,...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


Sure
When I was gasping, drowning, You were a buoy to me. When I was falling like the tide, You lapped peacefully. After, I’d look out for...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


January
Loss But not the kind I’m used to. Too strange and romantic Too familiar, unreal And full of sensation. Overwhelming, extinction of self...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


Thumb Moon
The moon was a thumbnail A hole punch A thumb hole The moon was so flat in the sky. A cut out, a cut and paste A cut and taste, A share...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


U K?
We are the lovers, the huggers, the laser beam muggers, the thugs, the drugs, the hate. We are the redeemers, the dreamers, The break-in...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


Plum Moon
I heard the nub of the plum stone fall before I saw it, The way you hear a plane in the sky. It was sitting on my desk chewed and gnawed...
Mar 29, 20241 min read


An interview with a missionary in 1990s Malawi
Sarah and I had grown up in the church. We had married at 19, never left Europe, and, from the outside, we were everything you would...
Mar 26, 20244 min read


Interview with Anatole Muster: Carving out a niche between Insta-fame and the Royal Academy
The Swiss 22-year-old producing electronic music with joy, collaboration and a classical jazz accordion. When 22-year-old Anatole Muster...
Mar 26, 20245 min read


Data journalism on sexual harassment
A group of Ladywell residents have taken matters into their own hands as 2023 Metropolitan Police Data shows Lewisham has joined Croydon...
Mar 26, 20241 min read


Theatre review and interview with Kat B
Local panto legend Kat B takes Eastlondonlines backstage at Hackney Empire as doors open for Aladdin, the historic theatre’s 24th...
Mar 26, 20241 min read


Hackney mayoral election coverage
Only half Hackney’s Mayoral candidates attend hustings ahead of election on Thursday
Mar 26, 20241 min read


Development and planning special audio report
Proposals for a “bold new centre for Lewisham” have been unveiled in a pop-up exhibition displaying the most detailed redevelopment to date
Mar 26, 20241 min read


'School Strike for Palestine' special report
Four hundred Tower Hamlets’ school students walked out of class in a one-day strike, marking one of the first ‘School Strikes for...
Mar 26, 20241 min read


Interview with Adi Staempfli
Brockley man makes mush-room for community through fungi workshops
Mar 26, 20241 min read


Crime reporting from the Old Bailey
After three decades, Lewisham detective made crucial breakthrough to solve cold case murder
Mar 26, 20241 min read


Interview with Stornoway's Oli Steadman
Oli Steadman, one of the founding members of British band, Stornoway, talks to Kate Balding about technology, nature and folk sensibility.
Mar 26, 20241 min read


A review of When Harry met Sally
So often humour delivers love. It charms you, disarms you. So immediate and involuntary, it sets to work dismantling pretence. The...
Aug 27, 20231 min read


The Crucible - @ the Gielgud Theatre August 2023
On Thursday evening there were murders of the most disturbing nature. Or perhaps I should say 'natures' because I think Arthur Miller's...
Aug 26, 20233 min read


On Delayed Flights
Hot, forward, and too close. That was the air. And it seemed to possess the passengers and the speed with which we fed ourselves in and...
Aug 25, 20231 min read


Watershed
If I gave myself permission to love you, And dropped down the iron gate, Then I condemn the lands to flood And drown all in its wake. But...
Aug 2, 20231 min read


July 2023 in Review - Peckham Pacers
It was Sunday and I pulled myself down the road for a coffee. Go'on then. And a cookie. Was feeling restless. Out of place. Belonging to...
Jul 31, 20231 min read


July 2023 in Review - Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
I don't know. Just did. Saw myself in a black man crying. Read myself and then, not myself. My phrases, my turns. But not my framework....
Jul 30, 20232 min read


July 2023 in Review - Inspiral London, SoilFood Fete @ Peckham Rye
I was hungover this morning when a friend I met on SpareRoon texted to see if I wanted to go to a community picnic. I slept through the...
Jul 30, 20232 min read


Millennial Grim
A black hoody on the sofa in 2022. It is Grim. Grim alone five days. Silent as the therapist who stared from the couch, Slouched,...
Jul 29, 20231 min read


Of Cumming
Earthen Sire of my overgrown heart, if I have born a tentative breath after the tread of your light foot fall, forgive me. Only inhale...
Jul 29, 20231 min read


July 2023 in Review - the Last Bus Live @ the Troubadour, Earls Court
Descended into the iron strangeness of the hollow hock hock of a wood block beating out a tempo that gets inside your side to side....
Jul 29, 20231 min read


July 2023 in Review - the Last Bus Home @ The Sebright Arms, Hackney
Scrinscranbamalam- went to the Sebright Arms on Saturday. First time. Hoot. I wore this little blue silk scarf which, I admit, I wasn’t...
Jul 27, 20232 min read


July 2023 in Review - Allow Cookies@ Kupfer
Friday 14th July - Saturday 29th July, 2023 Woodsy Bransfield, Ana Viktoria Dzinic, Anya Gorkova, Firpal, Lowena Hearn, Sofia Hallström,...
Jul 27, 20236 min read


July 2023 in Review - Nimona
Support your local freak. It's a sticker on a guitar. It's a phrase in a Glasshouse. It's the colours of courage. The sureness of...
Jul 27, 20231 min read


July 2023 in Review - Tough Love by Flyte and Laura Marling
A cassette clicking on. Bittersweet momentum. A strange duet. Harmony but no reply. No answers on the river we're rising from. A rising...
Jul 27, 20231 min read


On Death
I don’t want to die inside. I don’t want my last thoughts to have a ceiling. It’s not some religious quirk, it’s not about my soul having...
Jul 19, 20231 min read


On Privilege
I feel that a diverse portion of the London population trust me to be in their bus seat proximity and that, as a white, able-bodied,...
Jul 19, 20231 min read


On the intimacy of small parties
I like Sunday morning before 8am the best of all. But only if I get outside. It was 6:35am on a Sunday and an old man with high wasted...
Jul 19, 20231 min read


On Utility
When did we stop having small cardboard boxes and brown paper bags for our root vegetables? You used to find them in obscure dark...
Jul 19, 20231 min read


On Stinging Nettles
I ate stinging nettles for the first time yesterday. You pull the tops and blanch them in boiling water or stock for one minute before...
Jul 19, 20231 min read


Expiry Recall
I. I’m not some sort of frozen, Forbidden fruit. I’m not waiting to be thawed. I am raw. I ripen quickly, Over-ripe – You saw. Rot has...
Jul 19, 20231 min read


On Organised Women
Are women inherently good at organising things? And if so, is it because historically, small scale organisation has been a way for us to...
Jul 19, 20231 min read


A plea for the humble village green
I am locked down in a Suffolk village. This is, in itself, not particularly shocking for those that know me. I've lived in Suffolk for...
Jul 19, 20238 min read
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