The Bookshop, by Penelope Fitzgerald (available at 1p here) concerns the attempt by a widow called Florence Green –  “small, wispy and wiry, somewhat insignificant from the front view, and totally so from the back ” – to set up a bookshop  in Hardborough, a small town on the East ... Read More...

Today's smooth and spreadable Lazy Sunday Afternoon post is smothered thickly on toast by guest blogger Martpol... In recent years there has been a proliferation of products that you didn’t know your body needed (or more specifically, that women didn’t know their bodies needed). Barely a week goes by without the discovery that yet ... Read More...

I was hoping bowler hats would make a comeback this season, but I haven’t seen a single example yet. I did spot some rather unique headwear at London Fashion Week yesterday though, including this fascinating curiosity. Philip Levine is a ‘head designer’, who started using his head as a canvas in ... Read More...

I'm no fan of the Pope but I do think he should be given a fair crack of the whip, so to speak. At least we might expect him to be described accurately and with a genuine attempt at objectivity by our more intelligent news organisations. Alex Thompson on Channel ... Read More...

In a shop I overhead the beginning of Simon Mayo’s Radio 2 show, and noticed that he employs the old standard Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think) as his opening theme music. Guy Lombardo made it famous, but Mayo uses a 2007 recording by Jools Holland and Prince Buster (like ... Read More...

"Oh is he an angel or the great god Pan, my insurance company man?" Orchestre Murphy, "Insurance Co. Man" from the album Up Murphy Street   If you had set your sights on becoming a titan of Modernism, there was a time, early in the last century, where a career in the insurance ... Read More...

The last flawlessly great film of Robert de Niro's career. Jimmy Conway, the tough Irish hood, the murderer and hijacker and all round nice guy. Everyone likes Jimmy. Everyone wants to be around Jimmy. He gives the doorman a hundred just for opening the door. "He was locked up at eleven ... Read More...

William Maxwell is one of those American writers whose reputation seems not to have crossed the Atlantic. He was little more than a name to me - but as the name was quite often mentioned on Patrick Kurp's incomparable blog, I was already on the lookout for his works when ... Read More...

This video's beautiful and intriguing (it starts about 1'40" in but the explanations that precede it are fascinating - more here). It's made using the light 'extruded' from an iPad captured by long exposure photography and animated using stop-motion. I've been interested in the possibilities of digital art but, to ... Read More...

Are you the only talented member of your rock band? Tired of having to split your income with a gormless drummer, a holier-than-thou bassist and an unreliable guitarist who is better looking than you? Then live looping could be your answer. Today's technology means that with with a quick push of a pedal ... Read More...