Philip Wilkinson is the author of over 40 books, including The English Buildings Book, and most recently The High Street, written in conjunction with the BBC TV series. Happily for us, he’s also the curator of the English Buildings Blog, a firm favorite here at The Dabbler. In this new ... Read More...
Month: July 2011
Robert Irwin is an English writer who has written six novels and numerous studies of different aspects of Islamic culture. He is also the Middle Eastern editor of the Times Literary Supplement and has been instrumental in shaping the list of the hyper literary and thoroughly esoteric publisher Dedalus. While ... Read More...
Dabbler Editor Brit pays tribute to Amy Winehouse, who died on Saturday at the age of 27. Long-term readers of my Think of England blog may remember that I went through a period of infatuation with Amy Winehouse, having been to see her perform at a smoke-filled dungeon called The Academy, ... Read More...
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 ... Read More...
Life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly... groovin’, on a Sunday afternoon, suggested The Young Rascals (later simply ‘The Rascals’. Alas, the group was not sufficiently long-lived to become ‘The Old Rascals’) in their 1967 white soul hit Groovin’… …But how groovy is Groovin’, really? I’d say that its vibe ... Read More...
Until recently, I prided myself on never having downloaded an App to my mobile phone. I began to understand how King Canute must have felt when Apps started downloading automatically – I must have pressed the wrong button, or given my permission, but it didn’t seem like I had… Perhaps ... Read More...
Elephant ears, or palmiers, are quick and easy to make snacks, ideal contributions to school summer fairs, village fêtes and church picnics. I rely on this quick and easy recipe to limit the time spent in the kitchen at this time of year. Sweet or savoury, palmiers are always popular ... Read More...
It is a great pity, I think, that when the Culture, Media and Sport Committee resolved to grill the Murdochs, they stopped short at James and Rupert and did not call Iris. I know she is dead, and was unfortunately gaga for a while before that, but when it is ... Read More...
Mr Slang recalls his work searching for citations in the notorious work of Victorian erotica My Secret Life. WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS VERY STRONG LANGUAGE AND EXTREME NAUGHTINESS... The index, as explained to Dabblers by Julia Keay, is a thing of beauty, one that may possibly transcend, for all the labours ... Read More...
Philip Wilkinson is the author of over 40 books, including The English Buildings Book, and most recently The High Street, written in conjunction with the BBC TV series. Happily for us, he’s also the curator of the English Buildings Blog, a firm favorite here at The Dabbler. In this new ... Read More...
