Medieval illuminated manuscripts sometimes feature animals capering irreverently around the margins, such as the ones above and below. I discovered whilst reading Peter Ackroyd's fascinating Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination that these doodles are quite excellently called 'babooneries'. I also learnt that, at least according to Nikolaus Pevsner, ... Read More...

  Connoisseurs of unintentional comedy should enjoy English as she is spoke. Created in 1885 by José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino, it was intended as a Portugese-English conversational guide. However, the Portugese authors chose to go about creating it in an unusual manner. Having already created a Portuguese-French phrasebook some ... Read More...

Here at Dabbler HQ, deep underground, our statistics machine - a Blötzmannometer, attached to the computer via a pneumatic funnel - reveals that an absurdly large number of readers (some several hundred in fact), have yet to enter our competition to win a free annual subscription to Slightly Foxed. Yet it ... Read More...

In our occasional feature we invite guests to select the six cultural links that might sustain them if, by some mischance, they were forced to spend eternity in a succession of airport departure lounges with only an iPad or similar device for company. Today's voyager is Frank Wilson, former book review editor ... Read More...

For me, it is the honesty of Paul Cezanne's painting that binds his huge output together. Less obviously 'great' than many of his contemporaries, he could be serious and lighthearted, fevered or detached, and although it is worth remembering that he is considered the father of modern painting, it is ... Read More...

My old school celebrated a special anniversary recently, which I dutifully attended. Stepping back to my days as a rather plump school librarian, I fondly recalled the privilege of precious moments spent huddled up in a cosy, heated corner ‘reading’ French and German fashion magazines. Said corner has since acquired ... Read More...

“I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have", wrote Andre Agassi in his autobiography Open. It seems that many top sportsmen hate the only thing they’re good at. Stan Collymore used to say he didn’t like ... Read More...

Listen, tiny ones. If you are good I will take you on an outing. I will take you to the old balsa wood factory on the edge of the big blue lake. Every Thursday afternoon at two o' clock, there is a tour of the factory especially for tots. The ... Read More...

Ian Vince's 'The Lie of the Land' is a great new book that attempts to uncover and demystify some of the fascinating geology that lies beneath our feet here in the UK. Ian writes the regular Strange Days column in The Daily Telegraph, which focuses on curious and undiscovered aspects ... Read More...

[The story so far… Boris has been haunted by the Black Rabbit; Slavoj Zizek has defeated Rod Lidl in an exclusive interview; Grayson Ellis is more elusive than ever. So elusive, in fact, that he doesn't even appear in this episode...] The G writes a song Across the face of this sad ... Read More...