In this month’s The Word, I interview my favourite interviewer – the fantastic Kirsty Young.

In the Word To The Wise slot, to mark the 70th anniversary of Desert Island Discs, she dishes out the secrets of radio presenting, rants about the dangers of 24-hour TV and remembers anchoring 9/11 coverage while her husband was a few blocks away in New York. She also gives the best marriage tip I’ve ever heard: never wear just your pop-socks in front of your husband.

Elsewhere in the mag, I write about the joys of Neil Tennant’s voice as part of the cover story about great singers. Subscribe to the mag here.

In today’s Guardian, I interview the great young folk singer Jackie Oates – who also made me sausage soup and cake when I met her in Oxford just before Christmas. What tactics these fiddlers have. Read more here.

In this month’s bumper Christmas Word, I put Mike Batt in the Word To The Wise seat. He talks about why we desperately need pop TV, why Brian Eno drives him mad, and how nearly dying doesn’t have to define your life. I also recommend two of my entertainment hits of the year, Caitlin Moran’s How To Be A Woman and Feist’s Metals. Subscribe for Christmas here!

In this month’s Red Magazine, I interview (for the cover story, hooray!) the absolutely lovely Zoe Ball. She talks about growing up, giving up booze for mince pies and tea in bed, the sparkly world of Strictly, and recharging your TV and radio career at 41. The full interview is online here.

This morning, I was on the Today Programme, discussing band t-shirts with Evan Davies and James Naughtie. Of course I was. HMV’s Gennaro Castaldo was in for the ride, too. Listen to us celebrating 6 Music’s Wear Your Old Band T-Shirt To Work Day (mine’s a Johnny Cash number) here. The day’s founder, 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, also contributes a post to our award-winning blog – find that over here.

A few months back, I pitched an idea to The Guardian suggesting that we get a ton of music writers together to write about how their parents’ musical tastes affected them. The piece runs today. I wrote about taking my lovely mam to see her hero, Ralph McTell – that’s her, and him, above! Read more here.

Regular readers of this site will be aware that in my spare time – between writing for 245 newspapers and magazines, teaching, and occasionally breathing – I run the My Band T-Shirt blog with my dear friend Ian Wade. Last night, at the Record Of The Day Music Journalism and PR Awards, we won an award for it. Yes, that’s us gurning above, before we tucked in to the free bar.

If you’d like to contribute your own t-shirt, or simply have a nose through the wonderful stories we’ve been sent – tales of births, deaths, break-ups and countless other emotional shenanigans have come to us via these screen-printed scraps of cotton – then do have a look over here. And hoorah!

In this month’s The Word, I interview George Monbiot on a bitterly cold day in Oxford for the Word To The Wise slot, and write a big, blustery review of the new Florence and the Machine album, in which I tick her off for diverting ships from Cromarty to Trafalgar. Out now!

Kate Bush’s new album – toeing the line between the sublime and the ridiculous as always – reviewed, by me, for the BBC.