There don't seem to be as many of them as in the past - or have they all just been displaced? Mussolini: you might think he was just a blustering fool in a fez, but once upon a time many people took him very seriously. I remember my shock when, aged ... Read More...
About Author Profile: Daniel Kalder
The Dabbler publishes its guide to Great Britain for those of our foreign readers who intend to use the events of the summer as an excuse to make the pilgrimage. This summer, London will host the Olympic Games, and many foreign visitors will visit Great Britain. Although the games are still ... Read More...
Daniel Kalder learns there's a trick to successfully doing nothing outdoors... Like many British people, I grew up disconnected from nature. Though my small town was close to forests and woods and water, we pretty much left the animals and plants alone. Specialists, known as “farmers”, were our mediators. Every now ... Read More...
Apparently this: 'every five thousand years the most capable member of a carefully selected alien race must impregnate the Bergs' beloved protoqueen' - doesn't cue up the most bizarre scene in the book. Daniel Kalder reviews an unmissable bande dessinée... There comes a point in every individual’s lifetime when he or she ... Read More...
The sorry inheritance of a certain young Korean. What would it be like to be told at age 27 that for the next four decades you were going to have to kill, starve and oppress millions of people if you wanted to stay alive? A strange question you may think, and ... Read More...
Despite its rise China remains an enigma for many in the West. As fiction can provide a way to get under a culture's skin - the short story doing so in immediate and concentrated fashion - we thought Shi Cheng: Short Stories from Urban China sounded intriguing. The anthology is an upcoming production ... Read More...
We appear to be growing a weekly beard feature. Today Daniel Kalder combs through some notable beards from the world of popular music. Last week Susan offered us a fine post on Biblical beards. Among the images selected to illustrate the text was a photo of Billy Gibbons, lead guitarist for ... Read More...
Earlier this month the world’s greatest living Welshman turned 70. Fellow (albeit northern) Celt Daniel Kalder pays tribute. John Cale is 70. But this does not make him a joke. He never seemed young, nor was his art inspired by adolescent desire or angst, unlike most rockers. Even in the Velvet ... Read More...
Here's the first of a pair of posts on what is now an established and popular format: comics for grown-ups. The other day I was watching a Channel 4 news segment about the now ubiquitous “occupy” facemasks, in which they dragged around the aged hippy & magician Alan Moore, introducing him ... Read More...
For the benefit of The Dabbler's international readership - and probably for many puzzled inhabitants of what we still call the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island - Daniel Kalder explains the how, when, why and wherefore of this independence malarkey. As a Scot living abroad, I am often asked ... Read More...
