Continuing our weekly serialisation of Jonathan Law's The Whartons of Winchendon (published for Kindle by Dabbler Editions and available to buy from Amazon now), we learn more about Thomas Wharton: powerful political fixer, habitual liar, saviour of the nation and pox-ridden traitor... And so, rather implausibly, in the last weeks of 1688, Tom Wharton ... Read More...
Month: October 2014
Bookseller Steerforth handles a great many old books in his line of work. Often he'll find old photos amongst the piles of mildewed tomes, snapshots of lost worlds and forgotten lives. Continuing the series in which he shares some of the more interesting, surprising and moving discoveries, he finds a vivid ... Read More...
There is truth and beauty in the commonplace, Stephen Pentz finds, as he considers the poetry and troubles of John Clare... I don't know exactly what it is, but there is something beguiling and lovely about the following poem. Some may find it too sentimental. Others may think that there is ... Read More...
'Fear no weevil' is the motto of this Alabama town, a place that likes weevils so much they've even built a monument to them. Another strange Wikipedia article discovered by the Wikiworm... The Boll Weevil Monument in downtown Enterprise, Alabama, United States is a prominent landmark and tribute erected by the citizens of Enterprise in 1919 ... Read More...
Watching Game of Thrones intently, Frank discovers an extremely useful rhetorical device... There is a scene in the second series of Game Of Thrones where Daenarys Targaryen and her raggle-taggle band of Dothraki followers, having struggled across the vast and desolate Red Wastes, their food and water supplies exhausted, seek entrance ... Read More...
Nige pays tribute to the extraordinary Victorian spinster, globetrotter, botanist, artist and 'very wild bird', Marianne North... Tomorrow marks the birthday of the brilliant flower painter and tireless traveller Marianne North (born 1830), who, even by the standards of intrepid, globetrotting Victorian spinsters, was pretty extraordinary. In an age before jet ... Read More...
Dabbler Editor Brit talks to graphic artist Tim Lane about his unique, disturbing, five foot-long artwork Anima Mundi... At the height of the rare scorching summer just gone, a lorry full of candles caught fire on a main artery road out of Bristol, clogging the entire city with fuming traffic. (Bristol’s traffic ... Read More...
The Whartons of Winchendon is a new serialisation of Jonathan Law's latest book, which is published for Kindle by Dabbler Editions and available to buy from Amazon now. In this third episode we meet Philip's son Tom Wharton, who rose to political power but also became embroiled in religious and domestic scandal. Did ... Read More...
For people who like books, science, culture and intelligent chat, one of the finest radio shows out there is Little Atoms. An independent interview series that goes out every Wednesday at 11am on cult London station, Resonance 104.4fm (also home to Frank Key’s Hooting Yard,) Little Atoms is also a weekly podcast that ... Read More...
Not all of the great composers were child geniuses or teenage whizzkids. This week, Mahlerman looks at some who found their true voice later in life... I have always felt that the Octet in E flat major by Felix Mendelssohn is as close to a musical miracle as we are ever likely ... Read More...
