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The cover of Twisting My Melon by Shaun Ryder, centred in a thin gold frame on a midnight blue background under the words From my bookshelf

Twisting My Melon and the Shaun Ryder you don’t see on telly

Meet the Shaun Ryder behind the TV persona, and see why his story of surviving the Happy Mondays years is worth reading.

Illustration of a pair of running trainers on a doormat by an open front door at sunrise, with wet paving stones, puddles and a garden path leading out after the rain

Stop waiting, start doing

Life

Why the weather will never be perfect, and how to take the first step on the thing you keep putting off.

Rise of the Pseudo Juice (Supermarkets Do NOT Want You to Read This)

Life

I look at how supermarket ‘cold pressed’ juices get a 45 day shelf life through high pressure processing, and compare the fruit content in five big brand bottles.

The cover of Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis, centred in a thin gold frame on a midnight blue background under the words From my bookshelf, with the line “When you start putting pen to paper, you see a side of your personal truth that doesn’t otherwise reveal itself in conversation or thought.” beneath it

What Scar Tissue taught me about putting pen to paper

Beats

What Anthony Kiedis’s raw memoir can teach you about recovery, about music and about getting your thoughts onto a page.

Juicing for Weight Loss: Obtainable vs Sustainable

Life

I look at why juicing often brings fast weight loss but rarely lasts, and how swapping the diet mindset for short cleanses and more plants made my results stick.

Illustration of a hotel swimming pool at dusk seen from above, a smartphone lying on the tiled bottom and a single flip-flop floating on the surface

Angry? Not this time

Life

I slip into a pool fully clothed with my phone in my pocket, and I’m laughing. How the words you choose change how you feel.

The cover of High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, centred in a thin gold frame on a midnight blue background under the words From my bookshelf, with the line “I’m very good at the past. It’s the present I can’t understand.” beneath it

High Fidelity is about the man I could have become

Beats

Why a novel about a record shop owner made it onto a DJ’s shelf of true stories, and what Rob can teach you about living now.

Half of Adults Say Being Fit and Healthy is ‘Not an Integral Part of Their Lives”

Life

A survey found 48 per cent of UK adults don’t see fitness as part of their lives. I know that place well, and why a brisk 20 minute walk can be enough to change things.

The cover of Cash by Johnny Cash, centred in a thin gold frame on a midnight blue background under the words From my bookshelf, with the line “They’re powerful, those songs. At times they’ve been my only way back, the only door out of the dark, bad places the black dog calls home.” beneath it

Cash by Johnny Cash and the luck of staying alive

Beats

Why Johnny Cash’s own story beats the film, and what his darkness, hope and stubborn persistence can teach you about your own.

Illustration of a white chalk trail winding over dark downland at night, lit by a head torch beam, with standing stones on the horizon and finish line floodlights in the distance

100 kilometres in a day: running Race to the Stones

Life

A 4.30am alarm, a backpack full of beetroot juice and 100km of trail ahead. What my first non-stop ultra taught me about the dark bits.

My Weight Loss Mistake (and How to Avoid It)

Life

After losing over 5 stone I stopped setting new goals and slipped back 10 pounds, the mistake I made and why clear goals matter even after you reach them.