HISTORY OF HISTORY-of-ART BODYSHOCKS (dept of genealogy) :
ok learning that robert quine wz the nephew of willard van orman quine is one thing, but being told (by Tom) that Buster (Buster comic fame) is the son of andy capp has turned my entire unde[…]

I like Brutalist architecture. I like the colour of rained-on concrete and I love big, blocky geometricality. I’m always attracted to creative movements which name themselves by reclaiming the insults which defined them in the first place. Am I[…]

proof that bicycle-wielding action painter j.pollock = big yank puff
asger jorn and pals (and dog) make a clay mural[…]

The other day I went to a gallery and it was the National Gallery and it had pictures and they were dead good and there was a horsey.[…]

Things In The Top 25 Non Fiction Books Which Are Fiction No Matter How Many Copies They Sell
7. Julia Donaldson – The Gruffalo’s Child
12. The Beano Annual*
18. Rowling – Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
21. Derek Acorah &#[…]

Fine and Dandy
The Today programme, yesterday. John Humphries intriduces a story about the new, glossy, relaunched Dandy.
He begins by fulminating that it’s on glossy paper, has new stories, and Desperate Dan has got rid of his gun. Isn’t[…]

Oh no not again: people can grumble all they like about cinema adaptations of books but they are entirely harmless compared to the time-wasting chasm of ineptitude that is comics adapted from books or plays. I remember the ‘good old days’[…]

“I only read it for the constitutional debate”: best thing about this story is the name of the German erotic magazine in question.[…]

The Closed Circle by Jonathon Coe
Jonathon Coe’s The Rotter’s Club (published 2001) was always intended to be Book 1 of a larger story, and Book 2, The Closed Circle has only recently come out. It is a page-turner no doubt (I read it ver[…]

BLOCK BLOG
1: Sins Of The Father
Well if Dan can do all the Dr Who books in order, a quick trawl through Lawrence Block’s ouvre should not be past me. In particular, the Matt Scudder books. This will be a short set of tails spilt into three. On[…]