Anyone who thinks Heathrow is a mess should fly to Paris. Pandemonium rules at both Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports. There are queues as far as the eye can see for luggage, taxis, buses and information. Ask someone if they can help you with directions and you’re met by ... Read More...
Month: September 2012
I went to a couple of conferences last week, both, as it happens, on the future. One was concerned with retail and the consumer, the other on the web, technology and design. Most speakers saw the future as consisting of a lot more of what’s new-ish today. So the internet would ... Read More...
This week, and for the first time on The Dabbler, it's sing-along-a-Frank time!... On this day 198 years ago, my near-namesake Francis Scott Key wrote his poem Defence Of Fort McHenry. It was later set to the tune of The Anacreontic Song by John Stafford Smith, in which form it is ... Read More...
This week Jonathon Green salutes the author of Fanny Hill, a book with a single aim: 'to write about a whore without using the language that was seen as part of her stock in trade'... It is my intention to review, perhaps next week, Emily Brand’s new study of the Georgian ... Read More...
Out in the wilds of Essex there's an island you can drive to - if you can get past the escaped Lion first. The Dabbler sets off to investigate... That silly season tale of an escaped lion roaming the Clacton suburbs allowed many to indulge in one of those occasional gleeful ... Read More...
Rita explains why librarians are at the forefront of the battle for intellectual freedom in the USA... My favorite superhero is able to leap tall bookcases in a single bound! It’s the Librarian action-figure sitting on my desk, finger raised in the shushing gesture that I’ve never seen performed by any ... Read More...
This month all members of the Dabbler Book Club are in with a chance of winning a copy of Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan, sure to be seen being read everywhere between now and Christmas. If you haven't already joined the book club, why not sign up now, it's free ... Read More...
Toby Ash discovers an extraordinary nature writer... Firstly, thanks to landscape writer and all round literary top of the class Robert Macfarlane for introducing me to the extraordinary prose of Anna (Nan) Shepherd. He talked about her in his books Wild Places and The Old Ways (a Dabbler Book Club choice), ... Read More...
To London again. Seen from Lambeth Bridge, the Shard seems both very tall and not-really-that-tall-considering. Something to do with the tapering shape. The London Eye always looks massive because the brain doesn’t expect a ferris wheel to be that size, especially when placed opposite Big Ben. I've only been on ... Read More...
Some greats of gospel, soul, jazz and teen melodrama this week, with the music that inspired Amy Winehouse... In 2006, just a few months before she hit the big time (and subsequent triumphs and disasters) with the terrific Back to Black album, the late Amy Winehouse travelled to to Dingle, a ... Read More...
