Frank reveals the woman behind Duchamp's famous 'readymade'... That ludicrous mountebank Damien Hirst has delivered a statement. Of Henry Moore, he says: “His subjects are eternal, which is true of all the greatest art.” I suppose we ought to thank Mr Hirst for explaining that to us, although I am not ... Read More...
Key’s Cupboard
The mind of Frank Key
Today, some classic British noir... “Get carter!” That was my instruction, that morning, from the overseer. But there were so many carters passing along the lane, driving their carts to, or back from, the market square in the village, that I had no idea which carter to get. Nor did I have ... Read More...
There was a time when you didn't know even the things you've always just known... I remember the first time I saw the Beatles on television. It was a studio performance of “We Can Work It Out”, which the Wikipedia tells me was filmed on 23 November 1965, so presumably I ... Read More...
Good evening. My name is Big Ears. You may know me from the books about the wooden toy Noddy written by Enid Blyton, in which I feature quite prominently. It should go without saying that I am not a toy myself. I am a brownie, also known as an urisk, ... Read More...
They don't make 'em like Robert Baden-Powell any more. In this week's cupboard is the scout founder, hero of Mafeking and embodiment of British Pluck... Rummaging on my bookshelves the other day I was delighted to find my somewhat battered copy of The Penguin Ronald Searle. It's a first edition from ... Read More...
Speak, memory! Frank reminisces about his own juvenilia... When I was about eleven years old, I devoted much of my time to nisbet spotting. For a child growing up on a featureless suburban council estate, it was perhaps an unusual pastime, and more unusual still that, so young, I was the ... Read More...
In this week's cupboard, upper-class men of the people... It was often said of the late Tony Benn that he had a wholly romantic view of the working class. It is a trait he shared, of course, with other high-born lefties. There is a fatal combination of complete unfamiliarity with ordinary ... Read More...
This week, an eerie tale of astrology and tortoises... It came as something of a shock when I learned that my fate was written in the stars. I had no idea that every last particular of my life, from cradle to grave, was foretold in the barely visible movements, thousands and ... Read More...
In Frank's cupboard this week is a hardboiled thriller based on real-life events...and featuring dead cows!... Ned Mossop sat in his office nursing the last dregs of a bottle of hooch and smoking his umpteenth cigarette of the day. He stared out of the window into the gloaming, at the mean ... Read More...
A stirring tale of adventure and calamity from the golden age of ballooning!.... An accident, the consequences of which are expected to be fatal, took place at Cannes on Sunday last. A M. Despleschin, of Nice, had announced his intention of making an ascent in a balloon, and two gentlemen, M. ... Read More...
