By Aerostat to Hooting Yard – A Frank Key Reader By Frank Key, edited and with an introduction by Roland Clare There are cult writers and then there is Frank Key. Described by The Guardian as the author who ‘can probably lay claim to having written more nonsense than any other man ... Read More...
Month: January 2014
‘One adult for The Hobbit in 3D, please,” I said, thus setting the bar pretty high for the Saddest Thing Uttered in 2014 contest. It can’t be helped: a residue of youthful Tolkein geekdom means that a part of me will always yearn for the world of dragons and pointy-eared ... Read More...
An audio-visual treat for you this Sunday, as Mahlerman brings you three pieces of music inspired by great paintings... Musical inspiration is, like mercury, almost impossible to grasp. It can arrive, as many believe it did to a certain WA Mozart, in a 'lightbulb moment' as if from God, and the ... Read More...
Must be fun living in the bit of Holland that's within the bit of Belgium that's within Holland, especially if you were in a police car chase. Despite that, here's another Wikipedia discovery that's not going to make it onto my holiday list... Baarle-Hertog is a municipality belonging to the Belgian ... Read More...
Look out next week for the launch of By Aerostat to Hooting Yard: A Frank Key Reader, published by Dabbler Editions for the Kindle. The ebook contains 147 stories selected by nonsense aficionado Roland Clare, and is an ideal introduction for the newcomer and a handy 'best of' compendium for ... Read More...
Amongst the most shocking moments of England's shocking Ashes series this winter was the sudden mid-tour retirement of Graeme Swann, one of the country's greatest ever spin bowlers. Here, Jon Hotten examines the mysteries of the spinner's art, and what Swanny leaves behind... Decades ago on a Saturday afternoon in winter ... Read More...
Not sure what to spend your Christmas vouchers on? Here are some of Dr M von Vogelhausen's five-star Amazon reviews... Kitchen Craft Colourworks Measuring Spoon Set, Set of 5 ***** a spoony rainbow of joy For some while now I have struggled to keep abreast of the differing quantities of things in my ... Read More...
A few years ago bookseller Steerforth came across a remarkable diary, which he began to publish on his blog and which we now serialise on The Dabbler. If you're new to Derek, you can catch up with the previous instalments here. In this final instalment, Steerforth goes right back and ... Read More...
Nige celebrates a gem of Victorian comic writing... Born in 1803, Douglas William Jerrold was one of those industrious Victorians writers who seem never to have slept. He was a successful dramatist (his first staged piece written when he was 14), a hugely prolific critic and journalist, a famous conversationist and ... Read More...
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote his own requiem - and it echoed in the work of later poets... Robert Louis Stevenson suffered from ill-health for much of his short life. Nevertheless, he usually remained in good spirits. But he knew what he was up against. Thus, it is not surprising that, on ... Read More...
