Today's Row Z feature is provided by James Hamilton, a writer and former sports psychotherapist who blogs at More Than Mind Games. For his first Dabble, James examines a question we must all have pondered, shaking our heads in disbelief at the post-match witterings of coaches from  Ron Atkinson to Steve Bruce, ... Read More...

Watching last week's TV coverage of the service at St Paul's Cathedral commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the Blitz I caught a glimpse of Mark Alexander's The Red Mannheim (detail above); I can't think of many greater privileges for an artist. Its presence seemed particularly resonant given the nature of the work, which was ... Read More...

Rosie Bell was born in New Zealand and after doing her degree moved to Edinburgh.   She writes songs and poems, as well as blog posts for her eponymous blog.  She contributes to Harry's Place and Shiraz Socialist. We're delighted to welcome her to The Dabbler. Today she has not one but two books ... Read More...

The above pictures (click to enlarge) are taken from a large collection on the Denver Post website. Well worth a look to see a very rare set of high clarity colour slides from depression era America. Amazing how a splash of colour can bring the past so much closer to ... Read More...

In Anthony Burgess’ short story The Endless Voyager, a businessman throws away his passport and wallet mid-transit and, unable to enter any country, spends the rest of his life shuttling from airport to airport. He eventually goes mad. Today, of course, such a traveller might stave off purgatorial insanity by ... Read More...

I'm watching a lot of Tom and Jerry at the moment (an early morning enthusiasm of one of my boys) and I've been wondering whether there's anything else of that vintage on TV that still plays so well. Some of the cultural references and social situations are dated, of course. ... Read More...

Today's Lazy Sunday Afternoon post is curated by music buff and sagacious commenter Mahlerman... In 1937 when this now famous recording was made, Monteverdi's music was almost unknown outside Italy. The great french teacher Nadia Boulanger assembled the slight group, playing the lilting piano part herself, and installing Hugues Cuenod as one ... Read More...

The other day I was perusing Hardy Amies’ ABC of Men’s Fashion (first published in 1964), where I was rather surprised to read this definition of the cravat: This word is now only kept alive in the histories of fashion. In wear it has become a stock; and even this is ... Read More...

This pithy prose-poem of a 1p Book Review has been sent in by discerning Dabbler reader Stephen Buckley... I’ve just bought Colm Toibin’s Bad Blood for a penny. History has cracked along since he wrote it yet has also continued its sluggish brown drag reminiscent of the peat streams Toibin observes flowing into the ... Read More...

If Frank was Education Minister he would make the works of John Ruskin absolutely central to the education of our tinies. To this end, he has been hard at work devising Tales Of Little Ruskin, suitable for reading aloud to infants. I. Little Ruskin In The Garden “I was extremely fond of digging holes, ... Read More...