Nige reviews a handy new guidebook... The publishers Plexus, perhaps emboldened by my unearned reputation as ‘Cravat Wearer of the Year’, sent me a copy of this handsomely produced little volume to see if I might be interested in it. Of course I was. Manly Manners for the Impeccable Gent is a ... Read More...
Nige recommends another overlooked literary gem, available for a mere penny... After I'd read Philip Larkin's A Girl In Winter, it was a natural step to read another Barbara Pym. Larkin was a big Pym fan and, along with Lord David Cecil, responsible for the revival in her fortunes after a fallow period ... Read More...
Nige reads one of the great poet's rare attempts at prose... I don't know what kept me so long away from Philip Larkin's novels - heaven knows I've been reading his poetry long enough. I think I lazily assumed that his two published novels, both written in his early 20s, were juvenile ... Read More...
Nige watches Tony Palmer's curious 1995 film about Henry Purcell and finds that the music triumphs over the clunking polemics... On Christmas Day in 1995, Channel 4's TV treat was a two and a half hour film about Henry Purcell (how times change!). I didn't watch England, My England at the ... Read More...
How Methodism leads to Bedlam... misfortunes, troubles, disappointments, grief...206 family/heredity......................................................115 fevers......................................................................110 religion and methodism........................................90 childbed...................................................................79 love..........................................................................74 drink.........................................................................58 fright.........................................................................51 study.........................................................................90 These figures are for 'Lunacy by Cause' in a table published by the apothecary of the Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam) towards the end of the 18th century. I came across it in The Air Loom Gang, Mike Jay's fascinating study of the ... Read More...
Nige on the French artist whose largely inaccurate drawings fixed an idea of Victorian London in the popular consciousness... The dark, dramatic engravings of Gustave Doré have done a lot to fix our image of Victorian London, in all its murky squalor. But (as I learnt from an informative footnote in Bill Bryson's ... Read More...
Having recommended the remarkable novel The Book of Ebenezer Le Page in our 1p Book Review feature, Nige enjoys the story of its mysterious author in a new biography...It’s a great story: a young art student comes across an elderly man who is living a reclusive life in a seaside town. ... Read More...
Today, a small Dabbler tribute to the endurance of Paris. Nige celebrates an extraordinary photograph... The Parisian street scene above dates from 1838, and was captured by Louis Daguerre, who was born this week (18 November) in 1787. Daguerre, who achieved worldwide fame with his Daguerrotype process, began his photographic researches with ... Read More...
Nige recommends a new novel set during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam... Now, I'm not one for log-rolling - still less, nepotistic log-rolling - nor am I generally one for new fiction, but I must tell you that this is a seriously good novel, and one that's very hard to put ... Read More...
Bosie's unpleasantness didn't end upon the death of his unfortunate lover Oscar Wilde... Born on 22 October 1870 was that singularly nasty piece of work, Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's 'Bosie'. His appalling treatment of Wilde, both during and after their relationship, is notorious, and Wilde's tolerance of it must be put ... Read More...