In a post of extraordinary sweep and scope, James Hamilton looks at how the World Wars robbed Britain of its sense of future, symbolised by the eternally backward-facing game of football... My last post about the relationship between the Great War and football generated a debate about the extent to which causualties robbed ... Read More...
Month: October 2011
Rita Byrne Tull explains her test for revealing the cultural divide between America and Britain... First I must make it clear that I am not now nor have I ever been an imbiber of Coca Cola. So no statements made herein should be taken as either an endorsement or a critique ... Read More...
Have a cocktail, why don't you? One of our editors was fortunate enough to try a couple of delicious ones at L.T.D at The Social, highly recommended and just two minutes walk from Oxford Circus. There he was fortunate to run into Will Lowe of Bibendum Wine, an expert in all things ... Read More...
Our friends at Slightly Foxed (the real readers' quarterly - buy a subscription now!) have once again kindly allowed The Dabbler to dip into its rich archives. In this article from the Spring 2004 issue Roger Hudson discovers the "brilliant but eccentric" (not to mention "too licentious to be published") letters ... Read More...
Brit watches "an exercise in petty catharsis by an embarrassed left-liberal media establishment" and asks why satire isn't funny any more... The recent 50th birthday of Private Eye, Britain's leading satirical magazine, was marked by an avalanche of glowing media tributes. But for Christopher Booker, its first editor and still an ... Read More...
Brit wonders whether their respective musical styles can shed some light on the cultural differences between the Greeks and Germans, currently locked in a loveless economic embrace... Given that the relationship between these two ancient European powers is currently of major international interest, I thought it might be apt this Sunday to ... Read More...
Entry to Frieze, (£27), entitles you to buy: a catalogue and a canvas bag; overpriced art books in the bookstore - and actual works of art, if you are gullible enough can afford them. You can also buy drinks/lunch/dinner in the designer café, or restaurant – all a bit of ... Read More...
At The Dabbler we're going to be reviewing more of the best new books, both recent publications and imminent ones. Here James Hamilton reviews the Philip Larkin-haunted story of "a man from England's decaying margins"... I think we 40-to-60-somethings are unforgetting this now, the way we grew up with the threat ... Read More...
This week Frank's cupboard contains some essential equipment for the Victorian camping enthusiast... For convenience the following list is inserted here. It is condensed from a number of notes made for trips of all sorts, except boating and horseback-riding. It is by no means exhaustive... Be careful not to be led ... Read More...
Jonathon Green continues his slang tour of London by venturing into an area just off Bethnal Green Road known as the "worst street in London"... So which was the worst street in London? Marked in the most stygian black (‘lowest class...occasional labourers, street sellers, loafers, criminals and semi-criminals’) on Charles Booth’s ... Read More...
