Know London

Peter Watts is a journalist who has worked in the national media since 1993, starting at The Sunday Times as a 17-year-old sportswriter. He has also been features writer at Time Out, where he edited the Big Smoke section. Peter now writes about architecture, politics, cinema, drugs, beer, history, music, museums, comedy, football, hippies, archeology, ... Read More...

Mystics and Dreamers

In this week's music column, Mahlerman dabbles in mysticism... Dreamers dream and, asleep or awake, we all dream.  Mystics are an altogether more specific group who gather around a belief system of incandescent intensity; mysticism is at the very centre of their lives, and this is probably explained by the fact ... Read More...

Gang Bing

Today's rummage through the weirdest articles on wikipedia brings an eye-watering tale to light - this is certainly one way to curry favour with your boss, not one i'd recommend though... Gang Bing was a Chinese general and eunuch who served under Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty.General Gang Bing is ... Read More...

Times Past

With the free press currently under threat from Leveson and Hacked Off, it's worth reminding ourselves of the proud history of British newspapers in fearlessly bringing us the important stories of the day... My friend Peter was browsing through the papers the other day and felt compelled to bring some of ... Read More...

Hooked on Penguins

All readers are familiar with the distinctive branding of Penguin paperbacks, and there can be few Dabblers who don't have at least half a dozen or so on their bookshelves. Karyn Reeves, however, has about 2,000 of them - and she reviews them on a weekly basis on her blog ... Read More...

Dabbler Heroes – Zane Grey

Nige on the man's man with the girl's name... Talking of names (as we were last week), I was delighted to learn that Zane Grey, the tough-nut writer of pulp westerns - who died, very rich and famous, on this day in 1939 - was christened Pearl. He soon dropped this ... Read More...

What makes a classic a classic?

Is there anyone better qualified to comment on the latest publishing sensation than Robert Mighall, Madrid-based writer and brand consultant? There are plenty of huge Morrissey fans out there - but not many are also former editors of Penguin Classics. I'm about 50 pages into the eagerly awaited, immediately downloaded, Autobiography ... Read More...