A High Wind in Jamaica should be far more well-known and well-discussed than it is. This is one of those ‘where have you been all my life?’ novels. I picked it (a 1974 Penguin Modern Classics edition) from my bookshelf the other week on a whim - it must have been languishing ... Read More...
Month: February 2011
Toby Ash, The Dabbler’s Most South-Westerly Tip of England Correspondent, discovers the local origins of an iconic drinks brand whilst walking the back streets of Penzance. A few months ago, as I walked through the maze of back alleys in east Penzance, I stumbled across a locked wooden gate, behind which ... Read More...
Sunday evening, you’ve gloomily ironed your shirts for the week and now it’s time to settle on the sofa with a dram and see what the BBC has to offer you. A train appearing through steam, a man on a horse galloping along the beach, cars with running boards and ... Read More...
Blue Sunday Part 1 kicked off with some jazz, and following Miles Davis, here’s Chet Baker with Almost Blue. I have no quibbles at all with his trumpeting, but when it comes to the idiosyncratic vocal style of the young Chet, I find that I can enjoy one or two tracks but ... Read More...
London’s gone cycling mad this week. The official launch of the Velodrome, the first Olympic venue to open – and possibly the only one that will be on budget and on time, caused quite a stir in the press. The building has already won the public’s affection, being nicknamed ‘the ... Read More...
The Dabbler talks to Andy Davidson of Glencairn Crystal, a man on a mission to help you to really appreciate whisky… You wouldn’t buy a Rembrandt and then magnet-stick it to the fridge under the MOT reminder and the Chinese takeaway menu, would you? And you wouldn’t go to a Michelin-starred ... Read More...
The following phrases for use in everyday conversation were recommended in an 1876 book by Richard & Quetin, published by Hachette, entitled New Familiar and Progressive English and French Dialogues (With Dialogues on Railway and Steamboat Travelling, and a Comparative Table of Monies and Measure). Many thanks to Max Décharné ... 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 The Dabbler's own Worm, who ... Read More...
Jonathon Green - visit his website here - is the English language's leading lexicographer of slang. His Green's Dictionary of Slang is quite simply the most comprehensive and authorative work on slang ever published. Today, fisticuffs, as Jonathon fibs you right in the claret-spout with his fambler... To pick up where ... Read More...
Continuing today's double-bill about some hidden London gems... One Thursday I got the willies. These particular willies were given to me by the Life Mask of actress Sarah Siddons adorning the wall outside the Monk’s Parlour in the basement of Sir John Soane’s House Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. You may wonder how ... Read More...