The Sonnets of William Matthews

Nige discovers an overlooked gem - the poet William Matthews, who wrote sonnets about basketball, getting old and office life... Opening Don Paterson's anthology 101 Sonnets at random, I came across this beauty, by William Matthews, an American poet I had never encountered before (he died in his 50s in 1997, having never ... Read More...

Creepy and Freaky: Alcatraz

Alcatraz Island emerged from a bank of fog and I suddenly realized why it’s known as The Rock. Stories of ancient curses, military fortresses and its designation as a National Park are not why visitors flock by the ferry-load to this tourist attraction in the Bay of San Francisco. The ... Read More...

Dabbler Diary: Skunk and Fox

The BBC's Savile-Newsnight dégringolade, as horrible as it is, offers up an interesting case study to students of management. Is there a symptom of bureaucratic degradation that the corporation is not exhibiting? We have: the proliferation of managers but a lack of management; the presence of people whose job title begins ... Read More...

Nigel

This week, Frank pays tribute to an old colleague... For the best part of twenty years, I worked in an office. I don’t know if local government has changed since the turn of the century, but in my time it seemed to be a haven for the most bewildering collection of ... Read More...

Poor Show

The poor, as we know, are always with us - and consequently slang is rich indeed when it comes to poverty... Slang, as we should expect, is democratic. It fears not neither does it favour. An equal opportunity employer with the unalloyed fervour of a local council job ad it extends ... Read More...