If you happen to be visiting Paris, there’s a hidden gem of a museum that’s well worth a visit - whether or not you’re an animal lover. With the current fascination for taxidermy, cabinets of curiosity, natural history and animals in art, fashion and interiors, Musee de la Chasse et ... Read More...
Nature
Tim Birkhead's book The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology was described by The Telegraph as "one of the most entertaining, informative and enthusiastic accounts of the history of ornithology" and was voted ‘Best Bird Book of Year' by The British Trust for Ornithology and British Birds. In an exclusive ... Read More...
It being St David's Day, I thought I'd read some of RS Thomas's poems on Welshness and the Welsh. Reading quite a few of them, back to back, I was left feeling slightly embarrassed. Not because of the bitterness and misanthropy (directed at the Welsh as much as the English); ... Read More...
A Cotswold Village is one of my favourite books, mostly for sentimental reasons - I grew up in the Cotswolds - but also because it's a wonderful historical document that anyone interested in country life should enjoy. Written at the close of the 19th century, its author, J. Arthur Gibbs, ... Read More...
By now you will be feeling a vague unease in the back of your brainbox about the Christmas gifts you haven’t yet bought for family, friends and foes. If you fail to address this problem, that unease will turn into disquiet, then a Weltschmerz, then an angst and finally a ... Read More...
Ian Vince writes the regular Strange Days column in The Daily Telegraph and is the author of the highly recommended new book The Lie of the Land. He is also the founder of the British Landscape Club. It was a bright day in early winter, the sun was shining and a ... Read More...
Slightly Foxed (the real readers' quarterly - buy a subsciption now!) has kindly allowed The Dabbler to dip into its rich archives. We have handpicked this gem for you from the Autumn 09 edition, in which Richard Platt looks at Dreamthorp by Alexander Smith: the best-loved, least-known book in the English ... Read More...
Ian Vince writes the regular Strange Days column in The Daily Telegraph and is the author of the highly recommended new book The Lie of the Land. He is also the founder of the British Landscape Club. I struggle to keep up on an unexpectedly warm autumn evening as I galumph my way ... Read More...
All my local parks are overrun by crows and grey 'squirrels' (and overflown by squadrons of screeching parakeets). In one of the smaller parks, favoured by people who like to feed cute critters, the population of crows and squirrels is densely concentrated, and they are increasingly living cheek by jowl ... Read More...
To conclude our 'Birdwatching Wednesday' special, I recall that a few years ago I was somewhat tickled by a quote from slovenly artist Tracy Emin, as she unveiled a stick with a sparrow on it in Liverpool (funded by BBC licence payers to the tune of £60,000… ah those carefree ... Read More...
