Guest reviewer Stephanie Thomson falls in love with an unusual tribute to London, and reckons it's a perfect Christmas gift... How do you describe love at first sight? It’s relatively straightforward to explain how and when it happens, but the ‘why’ is more elusive. I fell in love with London 26 years ... Read More...
Non-Fiction
Announcing the winners of this month's Dabbler Book Club choice... Earlier on The Dabbler, Nige thought it was "thought-provoking, serious and witty". A little later, David Waywell reckoned it "contains erudition, thought, doubt, contradiction, cynicism, and even melancholy". It's not as if we haven't set out to whet your appetite is it? It's ... Read More...
Bryan Appleyard has published a new book, and The Dabbler will be marking the occasion in suitable style. We have two signed copies of The Brain is Wider Than the Sky to give away (see below) and we also have an exclusive Q&A coming up. But first, Brit reviews the book, and ... Read More...
Elberry reviews a new book about how "one of the greatest and most extensive tyrannies in human history was initiated by a very small number of idealist oddbods..." The title is somewhat deceptive: Spies and Commissars (Macmillan, 4 Nov 2011) isn't a non-fiction thriller but rather an account of the West's ... Read More...
This month's Dabbler Book Club choice is Clive James' A Point of View. We've got 10 copies to give away to members (join here if you haven't already), and we've got some great and even slightly scandalous Clive James-related posts coming up. As a curtain-raiser, here's Nige on Clive... Radio 4 listeners will know ... Read More...
Introducing our Dabbler Book Club choice for September... Our Dabbler Book Club choice for September is Map of a Nation - A Biography of the Ordnance Survey by Rachel Hewitt. Here's the blurb: ‘This is a brilliant book. . . . history at its best’ A N Wilson, Reader's Digest ‘Hewitt tackles the ... Read More...
Jonathon Green introduces his favourite collector of slang (and an ancestor of The Dabbler's very own Jon Hotten), John Camden Hotten... SLANG represents that evanescent, vulgar language, ever changing with fashion and taste,...spoken by persons in every grade of life, rich and poor, honest and dishonest...Slang is indulged in from a ... Read More...
Fired by Jonathan Law’s recent reference to the man, Jonathon Green brings us another Hero of Slang. John Taylor: The Water Poet. Taylor was born in Gloucester in 1578; his father may have been a barber-surgeon. He was educated in the town but abandoned school when he found Latin grammar too challenging. In the ... Read More...
From the archives, Gaw examines a countryside classic... I've been reading Oliver Rackham's The History of the Countryside, a book full of ideas, observations and interesting facts. It's a great myth-buster and is permeated by a sceptical curiosity that's never shy of actually visiting a patch of land if that's what's ... Read More...
Dabbler Book Club members! We have two free tickets to give away to you for Writing on Houses - Dwelling on Dwelling, an evening of discussion on 19th September at King's Place in London about the relationship between houses and literature involving Alan Hollinghurst (author of the Book Club's choice for ... Read More...
