In which the determinedly lapsed Rita fails to shake off her Catholic roots... When we crossed the Mason-Dixon line and I saw the Maryland countryside for the first time, I was reminded of England. After five years in California the green, gently rolling Maryland hills dotted with sheep and cattle were ... Read More...
Life
Bookseller Steerforth handles a great many old books in his line of work. Often he'll find old photos amongst the piles of mildewed tomes, snapshots of lost worlds and forgotten lives. In this new series he shares some of the more interesting, surprising and moving discoveries, beginning with an album ... Read More...
Ever tried to write a novel that wasn't worthless? Douglas considers talent, mediocrity, the limits of creativity and the art of appreciation... In A Mathematician’s Apology G.H. Hardy estimates that only five or ten people in a hundred can do something “rather well.” Considerably fewer are truly gifted. We do not each have ... Read More...
We four were driving to the swimming pool in the afternoon sunshine of the last Sunday in August, descending the long slope of Air Balloon Road, when I noticed a Seat at the bottom of the hill give the kerb a whack. ‘That driver’s a bit rubbish’, I said to ... Read More...
Frank considers that eternal question: how should one arrange one's books?... The other day I decided to rearrange my bookshelves. Their current state is, to put it mildly, chaotic. I seem to recall there being a system of sorts, some years ago, but latterly the apposite word to describe the disposition ... Read More...
In today's poetry feature, Stephen looks at the big questions and the small questions of life... In the following poem, Elizabeth Jennings speaks of "small answers" and "big answers." Perhaps I have grown old and jaded (by the antics of humanity, my own included), but I prefer small answers. How tiresome ... Read More...
Douglas Dalrymple considers American attitudes to genealogy and knowing one's place... Uncle Marv numbers his socks with permanent marker, “1” for left and “2” for right. That way he gets each one on the correct foot and his toes are happy. He’s retired now but used to work on computers for ... Read More...
Exclusively for The Dabbler, here is a glorious extract from Jonathan Meades' new memoir An Encyclopaedia of Myself. Sign up to the free Book Club at the bottom of the piece for a chance to win a copy... Dabbler editor Brit recently described 'An Encyclopaedia of Myself' as having a 'perfect ... Read More...
Rita discovers that the town where she used to work has been voted the second snobbiest in America... The dog days of summer are traditionally silly season for the news media here as soaring temperatures drive political discourse into the stratosphere of the absurd and inspire heat-stressed Americans to act out ... Read More...
Like Kim Wilde I was in the nineteen-eighties much attracted to the kids in America. I had a hankering to join them in gang bike rides around their capacious Californian neighbourhoods, and to eat delicious junk food in their diners, and to outwit their Fratellis and other incompetent bandits and ... Read More...
