Review: Beerd, St Michael’s Hill, Bristol

Brit visits a new 'craft beer bar' slap-bang in the middle of Bristol's Studentsville, and wonders if, despite everything, the world has become a better, more civilised place... You may not credit it, but I have not always been the suave, immaculately-attired, dashingly handsome Brit familiar to millions of Dabbler readers. Once I was ... Read More...

Out on the Edgy

This week Mr Slang tries to penetrate the world of 'edgy'... Edge. Perfectly respectable word. From Old English ęcg. Means edge, point or corner. There it is in Beowulf. The corner sense has vanished (still exists in German ecke) but the rest march on. On edge: tetchy, nervous. Thence edgy.  Kipling ... Read More...

Elberry on the Hood Rats

Following Jon Hotten's review of Hood Rat - Gavin Knight's new survey of Britain's gang culture - Elberry takes on the underclass... One of the great pleasures of living in Germany is not living in England. In Germany disaffected youths scrawl pointless graffiti and dress in bright primary colours; in England, they take ... Read More...

A Full and Complete Explanation of Everything

Nige endures the company of a conspiracy theorist... Not long ago, for reasons that would be tedious to explain here, I found myself sharing an uncomfortable sofa with a sturdily built one-eyed man of County Galway origin. Having filled me in on the topography of that county of lakes and mountains, ... Read More...

Art from the heart

Dabblers are strongly urged to visit the Wellcome Collection’s Miracles & Charms exhibition. The photographs above illustrate a few of the hundreds of Mexican miracle paintings on show (click on each photo to read a description of the events depicted, and click again to enlarge the image). Votive paintings encapsulate the ... Read More...