On your day to day travels about town, have you ever had an epiphanic moment – an instant when you've seen something as you’ve never seen it before? Bryan Appleyard writes about this in his book, The Brain is Wider than the Sky. He talks of the concept of ‘vuja ... Read More...
Month: March 2012
Back by popular demand, here are some more of Brian Joseph Davis' creepy police identikit software sketches of famous literary characters... Top: Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Someone advanced from the sea of faces, someone tall and gaunt, dressed in deep black, whose prominent cheekbones and great, hollow eyes gave ... Read More...
Those who feared that the passing of Steve Jobs would mean the end of exciting, beautiful, life-changing technology need not despair, for Key Apps are here... Boffins at the Hooting Yard Global Domination Lab, high in the Swiss Alps, are putting the finishing touches to a series of new apps. I ... Read More...
This week, a hero of slang who showed that size does matter - in this case, the size of your list of terms for the you-know-what... Of the many canards that assail the object of my life’s toil and linguistic affections is that of verbal inadequacy, the mockery by the loquaciously ... Read More...
A special treat for Francophiles and lovers of art and architecture... These wonderful images are taken from a new book Catherine Brennand’s France. Catherine was an award-winning water-colourist with a special love of architecture. Diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2002 she continued to paint full time through two courses of chemotherapy before ... Read More...
The Possessed is the uncategorisable hit 'memoir' by friend of The Dabbler Elif Batumann. Brit reviewed it here and Elif herself contributed a guest Dabble here. Now Elberry offers his review... This is a pleasing, deceptively readable book, fairly accurately subtitled "Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them". It is a ... Read More...
Do you know absolutely nothing about tax? Don't worry, most 'experts' are the same, says Dabbler editor Brit... Is The Budget over yet? Specifically, the entirely misleading press coverage of George Osborne's announcements last Wednesday? Now I know a bit about tax, and by that I mean 'a bit' and no ... Read More...
This week we consider what the abrupt disappearance of a medieval board game can tell us. To play a game is voluntarily to restrict your own liberty. It is a form of moral discipline. You agree to abide by certain rules which, most likely, you had no part in drawing up ... Read More...
Did you solve last week's riddle of 'Lark Rise and Candleford Fair', posed by fiendish quizmaster Brit the Elder? Here's the solution, plus a bonus question... The key to the mystery was to identify that you were required to do some... 23745 ... Read More...
To mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth, we're serialising The Pickwick Papers... Thanks to our friends at Naxos Audiobooks, we're exclusively serialising their abridged version of what is perhaps Dickens’ funniest work, The Pickwick Papers, read by Anton Lesser. The latest episodes can be heard below. You can catch up ... Read More...