In an occasional series Daniel Kalder examines the literary endeavours of the world's dictators. This week we look back at Enver Hoxha and his turgid, book-length love letter to another old monster. Even by the standards of psychotic 20th-century communist dictators, Albania's Enver Hoxha (1908-1985) stands out as exceptional. Born in ... Read More...
Non-Fiction
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...
In an occasional series Daniel Kalder examines the literary endeavours of the world's dictators. First, a topical look at the oeuvre of Muammar Gadaffi of Libya. A mumbling, murderous, Ukrainian nurse-fondling tyrant he may be, but – even as American bombs rain down from on high – you've got to hand it to Muammar ... Read More...
As well as being the theatre critic for the Evening Standard and an occasional television presenter, Henry Hitchings is one of the leading authors on language and cultural history. His book The Secret Life of Words won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and his other acclaimed works include Who’s Afraid ... Read More...
I started reading this book a few months ago, so it’s been sitting on my bedside table for quite a while. Twice a week it gets turned over by my cleaner, who appears not to like the picture on the cover. Living Dolls by Natasha Walter charts the recent revival in ... Read More...
There are plenty of English language films about the Holocaust, but very few about the Soviet Gulag. It might be the obvious angle, but it’s difficult to consider Peter Weir’s new film, The Way Back, in any other light. The wastes of Siberia now have their very own Hollywood blockbuster. The ... Read More...
Stephen Clarke is the author of A Year in the Merde and numerous other books which take an irreverent look at the French and at Anglo-Gallic relations. In an exclusive post for The Dabbler, he explains why Les Rosbifs have been irritating their continental neighbours for a millennium... 1000 Years of ... Read More...
Our friends at Slightly Foxed (the real readers' quarterly - buy a subscription now!) have once again kindly allowed The Dabbler to dip into its rich archives. We have handpicked this gem for you from the Autumn 09 edition, in which author Andrew Martin looks at the 'Upmanship' books of Stephen Potter... I first encountered ... Read More...
Judith Flanders' new book, The Invention of Murder (HarperCollins) takes a fascinating look at Victorian society through the prism of its obession with murder: the real-life cases where every gruesome detail is relished by a bloodthirsty press; and the ubiquity of murder in novels, plays and Victorian culture generally. The book has earned ... Read More...
Typographer and book designer Judith Schalansky grew up behind the Iron Curtain in 1980's East Germany. Unable to travel beyond the borders of her own insular country, she spent her childhood poring over maps of unobtainably far off places, "travelling through the atlas by finger . . . conquering distant worlds ... Read More...
