Another day and another depressing article about the obesity epidemic that’s engulfing the nation. Apparently millions are catching this deadly disease every day while innocently sitting on the sofa eating cake. It’s heart breaking – literally. According to this report, shops ran out of the largest sizes of school uniforms as ... Read More...
About Author Profile: Toby Ash
Toby Ash discovers an extraordinary nature writer... Firstly, thanks to landscape writer and all round literary top of the class Robert Macfarlane for introducing me to the extraordinary prose of Anna (Nan) Shepherd. He talked about her in his books Wild Places and The Old Ways (a Dabbler Book Club choice), ... Read More...
With Gaw still on holiday in France, today's diary comes from Toby Ash... and is about his holiday in France... The holiday kicked off with a splendid buffet dinner on the overnight ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff. Needless to say the boat had a French crew. There was a wonderful selection ... Read More...
Toby Ash, The Dabbler’s Most South-Westerly Tip of England Correspondent, discovers the local origins of an iconic drinks brand whilst walking the back streets of Penzance. A few months ago, as I walked through the maze of back alleys in east Penzance, I stumbled across a locked wooden gate, behind which ... Read More...
Squeeze into an old pair of flares, polish the gold medallion, start gyrating those hips, point to the ceiling, now the floor. And big smile. Yes, it's that disco music... On the night of Thursday 12 July 1979, disco was declared dead. More than 60,000 people – ten times the usual ... Read More...
Next year (yes, we thought we’d get in first) will be the centenary of the birth of food writer Elizabeth David who, Toby Ash believes, still has more to offer the modern domestic kitchen than all of today’s celebrity chefs put together. I just can’t imagine Elizabeth David stealing from Tesco. ... Read More...
Toby Ash shares some musical sunshine from New Orleans... Even with my own not insignificant blagging skills, I‘m not going to begin to pretend to have any deep knowledge, and certainly no clever insights, into the world of New Orleans jazz. I would be exposed as a fraud in a second. ... Read More...
Our Most South-Westerly Tip of England Correspondent finds a wholly different and original perspective on the world outside his front door (Different Ways of Seeing is on at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance until 12 November). I recently visited a gallery (www.penleehouse.org.uk) around the corner from my home which ... Read More...
Dabbler correspondent Toby Ash recalls a really dreadful weekend he once endured in Glasgow. A recent post by fellow Dabbler Susan on why the British put up with lousy hotel rooms brought to mind the self-declared ‘boutique’ hotel in Glasgow I stayed in while working in the city over a weekend ... Read More...
Dabbler and former Middle East journalist Toby Ash reviews historian Simon Sebag Montefiore’s latest book Jerusalem: The Biography. I can remember falling under Jerusalem’s spell after my first visit there some 20 years ago. It was a last-minute trip during a university holiday that turned first into a fascination, then an ... Read More...
