Richard Taylor’s programme Churches: How to Read Them  is showing on BBC4 (let’s face it, BBC4 is currently justifying the license fee on its own, with precious little help from elsewhere) and, a few episodes behind, on BBC2 on Friday evenings. Despite our supposed national Godlessness, countless people visit Britain’s churches every day, but how many of us ... Read More...

The other night at home, there was a dark moth fluttering around the ceiling light. Idly wondering what it might be, I waited for it to settle - which it eventually did, in a most unmothlike manner. It was a butterfly, a Speckled Wood  - and having one of those in ... Read More...

I - Beforehand “Will you come with me to Belshazzar's feast?” asked Agnetha. “I didn't know you'd been invited. I'll have to ask Björn,” said Benny. Benny strode off into the mountains to find Björn. Agnetha stayed at the hotel, sipping her alcohol-free absinthe. Wild winds were howling and storm clouds gathered. Benny found ... Read More...

By all these lovely tokens September days are here With summer’s best of weather And autumn’s best of cheer. September is an interesting and unsettling month, and a favourite subject for artists and musicians who wish to draw the easy parallel between the dwindling embers of summer and the melancholy way that tempus seems ... Read More...

[The story so far...The Liberal Guilt Society has held its annual conference, with Ed Balls, being medically incapable of feeling shame, the only prospective Labour leader who failed to make an appearance... ] Balls on The Balls Noseybonk is in Buenos Aires, flat underwater, grinfully glaring up through translucent cobalt waters at ... Read More...

Dave Lull, patron saint of the internet, emails to inform me that 1960s singer-songwriter Donovan Leitch is to stage a comeback with a new band. Surprising news, since Donovan retired from music in 1970 to concentrate on his career as one of Britain’s leading name-droppers. The very title of the Independent’s ... Read More...

This 1p Review is provided by Hannah Stoneham, voracious reader, prolific reviewer and friend of The Dabbler. You can read her fine book blog here. I should say that 1p spent on Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns, is 1p well spent. Charming and funny, touching and direct – this is an ... Read More...

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. pics taken from Arctic Technology by Christian Houge. ... Read More...

I know I'm not the only one around here who enjoys nosing around the city's hidden geography. In London this is a relatively easy task: every other street seems to harbour a recondite alley, a secret garden, a shadowy passageway or a disregarded yard. Sometimes even a subterranean river. In New York ... Read More...

1. The Zadar Sea Organ, Croatia A set of thirty-five pipes run through two-hundred and thirty feet of white marble steps.  Underneath, the pipes open to receive the oscillating energy of the sea waves, and the resulting compression and decompression of air powers the sound the organ’s harmonic pipes to create ... Read More...