ZMKC recalls an early experience of being too creative for a 'creativity-first' school, and explains how it has influenced her career as a blogger... When I was about nine I began exchanging letters with a girl called Paula who was in the year above me at my funny little Froebel school. I don’t ... Read More...
Month: September 2011
In June 1908 the British magazine The Strand received a submission to its ‘Curiosities’ column from one Mitchell T Lavin of Cincinatti, Ohio. Mr Lavin enclosed a calligraphic representation of the word ‘chump’ which, when turned upside down, still read ‘chump’. He added: “I think it is the only word in ... Read More...
This month's Dabbler Book Club selection was The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (buy it here). Below, Dabbler Book Club member Audrey lets you know her thoughts. But what do you think? Please do let us know in the comments. The Stranger’s Child was left abandoned by the Booker prize shortlist this year, ... Read More...
We're blessed with more than a comment from Malty today. Here he considers the cultural ramifications of trees. One of the pleasures of returning home, after time spent away from the ranch, used to be sitting on the favourite window seat and reading through the accumulated pile of letters. Letters : ... Read More...
Unfashionably British Gaw takes issue with a Great Living Englishman. Jeremy Paxman in Saturday's Guardian (he has a TV series on the British Empire coming out this autumn): ..."Britishness" was forged through war, industrial expansion and, absolutely crucially, the building of an empire. With the empire gone and the United Kingdom a part of the ... Read More...
Today's regular Sunday repeat is our 6 Clicks feature as completed by a literary blogger who writes from America's heartland. 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 ... Read More...
Mahlerman marks a sombre anniversary in a way that only music can. The words of the 19th Century German writer Berthold Auerbach will come pretty close to many people's ideal on this sombre day: 'Music washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life' - though I prefer the slightly ... Read More...
The unfortunately named Harry Crook established Kleeneze in 1923. It was the era of door to door sales: the genuine Encyclopedia Britannica vendor, the original man from the Pru. They were all shiny suits and polished briefcases. If you heard them walking up the garden path, there were evasion tactics. ... Read More...
These days almost any form of nature collecting is frowned upon. Here Nige recalls his own youthful collecting experiences and explains how they gave him a lifelong appreciation of the natural world... A little while back David Attenborough spoke out against the misguided laws that prevent children collecting almost anything in the field. Good ... Read More...
This week Key's Cupboard contains a brand new and exclusive and profound and terrible and wondrous story... Cohen tells us, in his song “Suzanne”, that “there are heroes in the seaweed”. Oh really?, I asked myself, not without a dash of skepticism, And what precisely would heroes be doing, disporting themselves ... Read More...
