Nige on the man's man with the girl's name... Talking of names (as we were last week), I was delighted to learn that Zane Grey, the tough-nut writer of pulp westerns - who died, very rich and famous, on this day in 1939 - was christened Pearl. He soon dropped this ... Read More...
Dabbler Heroes
All of us at The Dabbler were very sad to hear today of the death of Norman Geras (25 August 1943 - 18 October 2013) - political theorist, voracious reader and prolific blogger. Norm was a friend of and help to The Dabbler in its early days. By way of a ... Read More...
It's time the world recognised the man who made vintage wine, port and champagne possible, argues Henry... I’ve just written two articles, one on vintage port and one on cider. I found it impossible to write either without mentioning Sir Kenelm Digby. The amazing Digby was the inventor of a special ... Read More...
Nige introduces Edward Gordon Craig, the prodigiously talented but now virtually forgotten stage designer, actor, artist, musician and womaniser... About this time last year I spent a couple of days in my favourite corner of Derbyshire, where, as usual, I called in on my favourite bookshop (The Bookshop in Wirksworth) and, ... Read More...
'If he hadn't existed, a satirical novelist would surely have invented him' - Nige on the popular philosopher C.E.M Joad... As well as being a 'botanophile' (as he terms it, to distinguish himself from a proper botanist), Jocelyn Brooke was also a keen maker of fireworks, an interest he developed while ... Read More...
Today we mark the death last weekend of a great Antipodean, Professor Kenneth Minogue - a provocative thinker whose critique of contemporary society should be better known. Funny how it’s the old Tories who have provided the most persuasive and nuanced critique of our recent and ongoing economic disasters. It's because, ... Read More...
The great 'Beau' Brummell was the man who applied himself as none before to the reform and perfection of masculine dress... As Max Beerbohm puts it in his essay on Dandyism, 'So to clothe the body that its fineness be revealed and its meanness veiled has been the aesthetic aim of ... Read More...
Nige reflects on one of Britain's most prolific cartoonists... Today is the 106th birthday of the illustrator and cartoonist Nicolas Bentley, son of the writer E.C. Bentley, who invented that pithy biographical verse form, the Clerihew (E.C's middle name, also Nicolas's). For example (one of the better ones): John Stuart Mill, By a mighty ... Read More...
Jonathan Rendall was a gambler and boozer who died last month in grim circumstances. He was also one of the finest writers of his generation, says Jon Hotten... Jonathan Rendall has died at the age of 48, and as befits much of his life as a writer, the news of his passing ... Read More...
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...
