From the archives, Gaw examines a countryside classic... I've been reading Oliver Rackham's The History of the Countryside, a book full of ideas, observations and interesting facts. It's a great myth-buster and is permeated by a sceptical curiosity that's never shy of actually visiting a patch of land if that's what's ... Read More...
About Author Profile: Bill
There's been a slew of 'what does this say about Britain?' articles in the wake of the News of the World scandal (the answer can be summarised as 'nothing good', by the way). This is from The New York Times and is by an expat journo coming home. He concludes: ...a man ... Read More...
As regular readers might know, I've written a novel. I took its title from a Hardy poem, Midnight on the Great Western (you can buy Region of Sin for Kindle here). This has been one of my favourite poems since I first read it as a teenager, more than likely whilst, and ... Read More...
Images of 1940s Manhattan. More here. The modern age is looking more and more like a distant historical period... ... Read More...
Dabbler editor Gaw recalls his time in Russia... Walking back to my hotel in Nizhny Novgorod in the early hours. It's too cold to smoke and the snow's so thick on the ground the only way to get around is to walk down the middle of the road, jumping into a ... Read More...
Is Evan Davis the most modest man in Britain? In a recent Sunday newspaper Q&A he was asked whether he was too 'lightweight' to present the Today programme. His answer: I'm keen not to lose the things that made people say I was lightweight, but I'm also keen not to be seen ... Read More...
Here's a nice piece by Joe Moran on mowing lawns. Not that anyone's been able to do much mowing recently - I'd probably have to have resort to a machete to get near our patch of grass, subsumed as it is by sub-tropical undergrowth. Good growing weather, see. Anyhow, Mr Moran thinks ... Read More...
Inhabitants of the inner city have to take their country pleasures where they find them. So my sons' going to a supervised birthday in Stoke Newington provided an opportunity for a stroll around the more bucolic parts of the district. The party was held at Pirates Playhouse, a many-storied soft-play centre ... Read More...
The unsettled weather of the last few days - the British weatherman's 'sunny spells' interspersed with the same's 'thundery showers' - brings to mind a poem by Louis MacNeice, June Thunder. It was published in 1938, and it's difficult to read it now without thinking of it as pre-war, a foreshadowing ... Read More...
Our fascination with the Gurkhas continues: A Gurkha soldier who single-handedly defeated more than 30 Taliban fighters has been awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross by the Queen... In total he fired off 250 general purpose machine gun rounds, 180 SA80 rounds, six phosphorous grenades, six normal grenades, five underslung grenade launcher rounds and ... Read More...
