In his recent excellent series on Tarka the Otter author Henry Williamson, Jonathan Law wrote about difficulties for the reader in reconciling Williamson's real literary talent with his odious political views, including enthusiasm for Adolf Hitler. Jonathan's posts drew the ire of Anne Williamson - Henry's daughter-in-law - so we've offered ... Read More...
Month: November 2012
We welcome back Owen Polley of the award-winning Three Thousand Versts: he's wondering what the Turner Prize is really for... The British public loves to hate the Turner Prize. For evidence, you can visit the current exhibition, at the Tate Britain in London, and read the comment wall at the end. “They ... Read More...
I am sitting beside one of the darkened windows of the Sloe Bar-Café at Paddington, one of the best people-watching spots in London. My, what a relentless churn of humanity this is; what a swarm of busy worker ants, what an exhilaratingly multinational melting pot…and what a lot of tall, ... Read More...
Today we enjoy some samples from around about 4000 years of Russian rock. What it lacks in groove it makes up for in lyrical folkiness... Among the titans of Russian rock, few are more legendary than Boris Grebenshikov, founder and sole constant member of the group Akvarium. This year he has ... Read More...
This week I’ve written several posts on the subject of hair and headwear. First I spotted a sudden surge in the number of fashion accessories made using hair. Then I noticed that old hairdressers’ dummies are rapidly becoming collectors’ items… In case you don't know, these are the mannequin heads ... Read More...
Down in the country this weekend where I had a read of the local paper, The Wilts and Glos Standard. This is what appeared in last week’s '100 Years Ago' feature: Saturday October 26th 1912 Effigy burning. On Thursday of last week some of the villagers of Siddington, among whom was a ... Read More...
Why oh why does Peter Hitchens object to wedding owls, for goodness' sake?... There are few activities more dispiriting than reading the comment threads in the Guardian's Comment Is Free pages. The readers – or at least the commenters – of a once great liberal newspaper reveal themselves as, largely, asinine ... Read More...
Elberry reviews Howard Jacobson's collection of essays. WARNING: Below the fold the language is very strong and unasterisked. But also very funny. What a f***er, I thought. What a grotesque, big-nosed, loud, clownish, apple polishing literary f***er. It was 2003 and I was looking at Howard Jacobson. He was sitting at a ... Read More...
Hurricane Sandy batters the east coast of America, but back here in Blighty slang has a rather down-to-earth relationship with wind... Slang is urban and its lexis draws thereupon, but the elements, linked to nature and thus the world beyond town, are too powerful to be ignored. So slang undoubtedly uses ... Read More...
