The lucky winners of the latest Dabbler Book Club selection… Free books. What’s not to like? Especially when the book in question is Robert Macfarlane's The Old Ways, a book that has deservedly been sitting in the bestseller lists for weeks now. Told in Macfarlane’s distinctive and celebrated voice, the book ... Read More...
Month: July 2012
From Ruskin's anti-capitalist rivers to the evil 'hydraulic empires' of the Soviet Union, Jonathan looks at the connection between water and social engineering... THERE IS NO WEALTH BUT LIFE. Life including all its powers of love, of joy, of admiration. So, in thumping block caps, John Ruskin threw down his challenge to ... Read More...
The horse is a singularly beautiful animal. But will we always prize its artistic representation? I established my literary fame, aged 13, by writing an essay at school on the theme of a job I would not like to do. I chose jockey. I’m not sure, with 30 years’ experience, if ... Read More...
Nige recommends a 'jolly kind of nightmare'... I don't know why I had never got round to reading G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday - or, come to that, The Napoleon of Notting Hill. I've now repaired the first omission - and great fun it has been. Subtitled 'A Nightmare' and ... Read More...
An unlikely - and frankly quite anachronistic - revenge of the mummy. Recently there’s been some blather about removing Lenin from Red Square and inserting him into a hole in the ground. Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it. About once a year some Russian public figure suggests burying the ... Read More...
To Hereford, on business. I’d never been before and was looking forward to it. It rained very heavily throughout my visit and the cathedral was closed. *** Oh goody, we have a pandemic of inactivity. The 10 o'clock Beeb news got into a fine logical tangle with a piece asking “what has ... Read More...
In his meanderings through the internet's musical parts, Mahlerman has unearthed many obscure gems that, while perhaps not fitting into a theme, nonetheless deserve their moment in the sun. Here are four... When I began this fortnightly blog column a couple of years ago I had no real idea of what it ... Read More...
I’ve been wondering how best to pass the time during the London 2012 Olympics. With the torch relay in a few days time, followed by a number of Olympic events in the surrounding area, there will be road closures and, potentially, gridlock. We will probably be better off staying indoors ... Read More...
Frank introduces a very attractive-sounding religious sect... Yesterday marked the 335th anniversary of the release from Newgate prison of Lodowicke Muggleton. He had not been there very long – he was held on default of an unpaid fine, then managed to cobble the money together – but thereafter the 19th of ... Read More...
Following Rio Ferdinand's Twitter troubles, Mr Slang examines the language of supposed race-betrayal... Choc-ice. Haven’t touched one since 1989 myself. Forty-one that very day, as it happened, and, hold on Mr G, just want to check your results. Black forest gateau, tiramisu, death by chocolate...the sweet trolley is as off-limits as ... Read More...
