I went to an auction! An art auction! At a proper auction house! On Bond Street!
I’ve been getting very into several 20th Century British Printmakers for a while. This Print Sale was not the first I’ve attended, but it was the first time[…]

Two questions about GROCERS
I will swap you them for a FACT about grocers I learned in my book on Krakatoa, viz. the name comes from the London Guild of Pepperers, who were licensed to trade spice in gross amounts. The spice must flow!
Here are the q[…]

FT Top 100 Films
69: JOAN OF ARC: THE MESSENGERmark sinker says:
This is in the 100 because GOD’S ANGELS spoke to me. If you disagree then I shall raise THE FIGHTING MANHOOD OF ALL FRANCE and drive you from our blog. IT IS STYLISH AND FUNNY an[…]

Sport Relief is upon us like a nettle knicker rash. Sitting in the middle of a summer of sport like a rancid boil on an otherwise attractive partners arse, are sporting people making tits of themselves and non-sportsmen trying to make sportsmen of th[…]

Once Caldas win Copa Libertadores
TV coverage of the Copa Libertadores is frustratingly hard to find. Eurosport provide brief highlights and Channel 5 occasionally add a segment onto their Argentine league show in the early hours, but it’s not […]

Coma – Alex Garland
Has Alex Garland got over his rumoured writer’s block? Well, Coma doesn’t really suggest so. Released without media fanfare, it’s a short story trying to disguise itself as a novella.
There are no page num[…]

Spicy thai rice and egg soup with pork Just a recipe. For 2 hungry people.
Having written this out I think it’s one of those recipes that’s easier to do than to describe. This seemed like an absolute dream to make, and the result was a tr[…]

NETTLE KNICKERS! A wonderful BBC science piece where the headline is needlessly gratuitous and fades away to a nice but less shocking piece on textile science. Of course nettle knickers could act as an appropriately natural defence against many preda[…]

BEFORE PARKING BEHIND THAT DUMP TRUCK, MAKE SURE THAT DUMP TRUCK DRIVER ISN’T A DUMB TRUCK DRIVER! Ah yes. We saw that there Harry Potter film last night, it was alright, I suppose, even though Harry is about as scary as Dave Gorman wielding a […]

The curious case of Daara J: Daara J, Senegal’s biggest-selling hip-hop crew, provide a neat illustration of what Alex below (and Marcello in the comments box) are complaining about. We stumbled on Daara J at Glastonbury, playing late on Sunday[…]