I think (after much agonising, for there is stiff competition here) that my favourite bit of William McGonagall - widely regarded as Britain's worst ever poet - is this verse from The Ancient Town at Leith, purely for the scrupulous attention to numerical accuracy: Then as for Leith Fort, it was erected ... Read More...
Month: October 2010
In this debut guest post from Slightly Foxed, Liz Robinson introduces Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, and examines some of the problems associated with the terminal condition of 'Being in Thrall to Books'. Titled 'Kindred Spirits', this was the very first article in the very first issue ... Read More...
We are not concerned here with death so much as the farthest reaches of the creative process, be it in music, movement or film... Smoke The Swede Mats Ek created this provocative exploration of the human condition in the mid-90's. This small section from a later film version features Ek's brother Niklas, ... Read More...
'Umbrella' is rather an exotic word for a relatively simple artefact. An online investigation of the history of this unusually named accessory throws up many shades of meaning, making the topic of umbrellas all the more fascinating. Especially the see also section on Wikipedia, which lists: Brumbrella Bulgarian umbrella Cocktail umbrella Umbraculum (a must ... Read More...
One of the numerous things that struck me when watching the original 1975 movie Rollerball on TCM the other day – along with how po-faced it is, and how rubbish they were at predicting what the future would look like (mainly they thought by 2010 we’d all have clunky great ... Read More...
Some years ago, in the pages of The Grauniad, A S Byatt wrote "most people know [Sir Charles Sherrington's] description of the waking brain as ‘an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern…’". Really? Do most people know this? I suppose such hauteur is to be ... Read More...
"I won’t say that Slightly Foxed is essential, it’s just that I can’t live without it any more." Bernard Cornwell Discerning readers who enjoy our 1p Book Reviews are in for a treat, as we are delighted to announce that The Dabbler is joining forces with Slightly Foxed. Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s ... Read More...
[The story so far… Messiah White and Slavoj Zizek have failed to gain the attention of Grayson Ellis, while Ed Balls has failed in an attempt to improve his unpopularity with Rod Lidl by appearing on Celebrity Total Wipeout…] The Shtick and the Black Rabbit “A-rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta, down the stairs he ... Read More...
// In parks and playing fields, gardens and wasteground, well-worn dusty paths are to be found stretching away in threadbare lines towards their triangulated destinations. Gaston Bachelard called these les chemins du desir: pathways of desire -paths that were not designed but instead were eroded organically away by individuals deciding where ... Read More...
This year marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of Adrian Carton de Wiart, one of the most remarkable - if fairly disturbing - soldiers this country has produced. His soldiering career extended from Boer to Second World Wars, taking in many events of large historical importance. He was usually to be ... Read More...
