The best criticism can show something familiar in a new and revealing light. And there's little that's as familiar to us as Leonardo's work; to re-purpose some lines of RS Thomas's, his paintings 'are tired of returning the hard stare / of eyes. The sculptures are smooth / from familiarity'. ... Read More...

With the Pope's visit to Blighty imminent, now is an opportune time to acquaint Dabbler readers with my enormously helpful Pontiff Mnemonic. The chances are that in the coming days you will be accosted in the street by one of those vexing persons who shouts "Oi, you! Name all the ... Read More...

TH White, author of the strange and indelible Arthurian sequence The Once and Future King, is also the author of a strange and indelible memoir called England Have My Bones. It is available for 1p here and for a cent here. England Have My Bones is ostensibly a diary of a ... Read More...

Last Monday, the Bank Holiday, we went to Tate Britain to visit the Romantics exhibition. It was surprisingly and pleasantly quiet, at least before lunch. But we didn't get far before being captivated by the jet fighters in the Duveen Galleries, a Sea Harrier (above) and a Jaguar (below). They immediately appealed ... Read More...

A Dubious Codicil, from which that quote about the “stupefying work of painstaking bad taste and technical skill” is taken, is the second part of Michael ‘Peter Simple’ Wharton’s autobiography. You can buy it (not, alas, for a penny) along with the first, The Missing Will, in a single volume, ... 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...