Andrew Whitehead

Jeez, am I really that old? I went to see the Zombies last night - a band which formed way back 51 years ago. And which had its only UK chart hit, 'She's Not There' ...  in 1964.

So that must make the twin pillars of the Zombies, Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent, well, a bit more than simply OAPs. And their current band features surely the world's oldest extant bass player.

Colin and Rod, though, are still lean and mean - and magnificent musicians. When a band with big nostalgia value starts playing their new material, it's usually time to head home. But the Zombies' new stuff packs a punch - they play all the back catalogue as well, and that means 'Time of the Season', 'Whenever You're Ready', and some of the material from solo careers -  Colin Blunstone still has a wonderful, at times, aethereal, voice - and Rod Argent is a great rock and roll keyboards guy. And they give every impression of enjoying themselves on stage.

So altogether, the Zombies are a neat band - good live - and you'd never guess that they have already had their golden anniversary.

A wonderful ghost sign just of Wandsworth Road uncovered with the removal of an advertising hoarding. I chanced across this while strolling round Clapham and Battersea last weekend - others have been here before me and indeed here's a wonderfully researched account of Redfern's and their rubber products.

After 123 years, Clapham Library closes at the end of this week. It's a wonderful building, with a fantastic location - at one corner of the Common, opposite Holy Trinity and alongside the elegance of Clapham Old Town.

The building dates from 1889 - Battersea Public Library, not all that far away on Lavender Hill, is of exactly the same vintage. You do wonder about the back story there - a keen municipal rivalry, perhaps. The libraries still fall either side of a local government fault line - it used to be Clapham / Battersea, now it's Lambeth / Wandsworth.

Of the two libraries, Battersea is bigger, and better refurbished. But Clapham is appealingly compact, and more pleasing on the eye.

In its final days, Clapham Library is hosting an exhibition about the life and writing of a local author, Pamela Hansford Johnson. She was brought up on Battersea Rise, and the area is captured particularly in her first novel, This Bed Thy Centre, which has recently been republished.

As for the fate of the library building, a local group Omnibus is campaigning for it to become a community arts centre. Another option is that it will be turned into top-of-the-market flats.

Ever wondered how the Kashmir crisis began - what the whole fuss is all about?

Well, you can either read a learned tome - allow me to offer a suggestion - or have a blast reading Sumit Kumar's wickedly entertaining comic history of Kashmir, 'Kashmir ki Kahani', which translates as 'Kashmir's Story'.

You can get a sense of his style from the excerpt on the left: and let me give a beginner's guide to the runners and riders ...

In the top frame on the left you have Jawaharalal Nehru (the Nehru cap is a bit of a give away), India's first Prime Minster - and alongside, in another example of trademark independence-era headgear,  Mohammed Ali Jinnah in his astrkhan hat. He was the heavy smoking founder of Pakistan.

They were the two leaders who went to war within months of independence in August 1947 - about who gets Kashmir. The former princely state has, de facto, been partitioned ever since ... though the bigger part in terms of population, including the Kashmir valley, is on the Indian side of the line.

And below is the beturbanned last maharajah of Kashmir, Hari Singh - to him fell the choice of whether his principality should cast its lot with India or Pakistan. His own preference was independence. In the end, as Pakistani tribesmen invaded, he plumped for India. And that's how it all kicked off.

The complicating factor was that Hari Singh was a Hindu prince ruling a state with a (then) three-quarters Muslim population. OK, so it's obvious, Kashmir should have headed to Pakistan ...

But there was another complicating factor - the pre-eminent Muslim Kashmiri nationalist politician of the era, Sheikh Abdullah, supported Kashmir's accession to India. OK, so it's not so obvious ...

But then, a few years later, Sheikh Abdullah had second thoughts about whether Kashmir should be India's. OK, so not clear at all.

As I say, if you want to find out more, and be entertained at the same time, then read 'Kashmir ki Kahani' - you can get to the online version by clicking on the image.

Another piece of fine art - encountered in a friend's north London living room.

Dorothy ('Dorf') Bonarjee - born in Lucknow in 1894 - was a poet and lawyer. She studied at Aberystwyth, attracted by the Welsh bardic tradition, and later eloped with a French man, an artist, who painted this wonderful portrait. She lived most of her life in France. She was part of the noted Calcutta Bonnerjee family. Her uncle (I think I've got that right) was W.C. Bonnerjee, the first president in 1885 of the Indian National Congress. Her niece lives in Gospel Oak.

Posted below is an example of her verse - not perhaps the most polished of pieces but written when she was about twenty, just as the First World War was getting underway, and obviously written with great feeling.

A wonderful, sunny image of Bush House (thanks to Volod Muzyczka) - my principal work place over the years. But in a couple of months, the BBC is moving out. And while the World Service's new home, the extended Broadcasting House at Portland Place, is wonderful, we will all miss the old place.

This image is from the cover of 'The Newsroom Book', a tribute to the Bush House Newsroom written by those who have worked there over the decades. A fond, largely affectionate, account of the achievements, foibles, curiosities of the place - and the people who have worked there

Look up when you are walking around London, and you sometimes get quite a surprise.

You can see what I mean.

But where is it?

And a little bit of a clue - if you think the brickwork in the background suggests railways, well, you could be right.

So who's on track to get this one?

In the year of Jubilee, a classic - if controversial - badge from an earlier Jubilee is back on the market.

And this isn't a reissue. A cache of fifty of these 1977 badges, one of the most celebrated of political badges, has been unearthed and put on sale - at a fiver a time.

A bargain - given that one of the originals was sold recently on eBay for a staggering £44.63!

The designer was Sherrl Yanowitz. Her first badge design - and in the end they shifted more than 40,000.

My first serious cycle ride of the year this morning. An hour criss-crossing around Dartmouth Park Hill, Highgate and Hampstead Heath - rewarded by a magnificent view from the top of the Heath, near Jack Straw's Castle

The ride has four significant climbs - two of which I can manage (three on a good day, which today wasn't). I've never managed to get all the way up Swains Lane without getting off to push - it simply a matter of whether I can get as far as the entrance to Highgate cemetery.

The heath is enchanting in the morning sun - and this morning, I was rewarded with a wwonderful view of a cormorant on a pole in the middle of one of the ponds.

A cute touch at the new Kings Cross concourse - the most famous station platform in the world. Complete with excited youngsters keen to be photographed on their way to Hogwarts.

Who says that developers / architects / train companies don't have a sense of humour!

How long before someone nicks the platform sign?