Of course Michael Gove didn't actually ban any American books from schools, but that didn't stop a good argument about British and American literature. Rita weighs in... Two contrary news stories from Britain caught this librarian’s attention recently as they both have to do with books. First was education minister Michael ... Read More...
General
Nige remembers Bea Lillie, the once extremely famous comedienne and formidable character... Today marks the birthday of Beatrice Lillie, born on this day in 1894 in Toronto. Beatrice who? you may well be asking - and with good reason. Though she had a huge reputation in her day, 'Bea' Lillie specialised ... Read More...
Last year we ran a post by Jonathan Law about the mysterious disappearance in the 1970s of the strange and brilliant poet Rosemary Tonks. Last month, new information about her vanishing act came to light. Here is Jonathan's original post, with an update... If you’ve ever come across the work of Rosemary Tonks, then I think I ... Read More...
In the early 1960s two behavioural psychologists attempted to bring up a child in an environment devoid of pictures. But what, exactly, did they prove?... Imagine if, in infancy, your parents made every effort to ensure that you never saw a picture. This is what happened to the anonymous subject of ... Read More...
Steerforth finds that some things can be so boring they exert a curious fascination... There is a point at which things can be so boring that they become interesting again. That applies to people too. When I was a student, I had a temporary job as an assistant in a reference ... Read More...
The future seems to have converged on Aldous Huxley's once brave predictions... Rooting around for a new audio book recently to listen to on my daily commute – as there are only so many Bryant and May novels I can fill my days with - I decided to give Aldous Huxley’s ... Read More...
Sufferers from Foreign Accent Syndrome suddenly find themselves speaking with an alien accent. Douglas explains how you can get a piece of that action... Every now and then news reaches us of a case of so-called Foreign Accent Syndrome. In 2011, for example, a middle-aged woman made a visit to her ... Read More...
Ever wondered why sailors' wives retain their youthful looks for so long, or why giants have low sexual energy? 'Professor' R. B. D. Wells has the answers... Curmudgeons who moan about bloggers and Wikipedia argue that the democratic nature of the web has allowed ill-informed, ordinary people to flood the internet ... Read More...
What if all that we see or seem takes place in a sea beneath a sea, beneath a sea...? Fans and devotees of Spongebob Squarepants (yes, I’m raising my hand) will recall that while the town of Bikini Bottom itself is located underwater it nevertheless borders a sort of sea-under-the-sea. At ... Read More...
Nige on how the sight of a deer inspired a prize-winning poem which 'inspired' another prize-winning poem... We retroprogressives have long relished the fact that Britain's deer population is back up to medieval levels - but now the news gets even better: the deer population, according to the latest research, is ... Read More...
