One of the pleasures of writing a blog is having intelligent conversations with people who visit. It does me some good to have my opinions challenged in a way that’s largely consequence-free and where I’m in no more trouble than a slightly bruised ego when I get things wrong. The downside of this is that […]
Continue ReadingOkay. No more Benadryl for me. The hay fever was terrible, but this sleepiness is worse. I skipped a dose yesterday to ensure I didn’t sleep through the podcast, but I took one just before I went to bed last night, thinking that the effects would have worn off by the morning. They hadn’t. Holy […]
Continue ReadingYesterday didn’t go as planned. Just after I blogged about intending to spend my day drawing, I got a delivery through the post. It was some hay fever tablets I’d ordered after finally accepting all the weird symptoms I’d been experiencing the last few weeks (sore eyes, sneezing, pressure in my ears) were explained by […]
Continue ReadingThis is a blog so you’ll have to excuse it if it occasionally follows the rough contours of my mood. I got up today feeling like I have nothing interesting to say. “Hmm, when has that ever stopped you?” I hear you ask. Yet I really don’t feel like writing. It could just be the […]
Continue ReadingA new piece from me, yesterday, on what I think is missing from so much of the coverage of Trump in Tulsa. As I sit here today, however, at 11.20am on a Tuesday morning, I’m waiting for the news to break that the lockdown is finally ending. I’m not entirely sure what to make of […]
Continue ReadingBit late today, as I’m always likely be late after a weekend of important political developments. My blog writing always comes after I’ve finished my more serious work, so this morning that meant a 1000 words about Tulsa. I don’t think I approach either my more serious writing or my blog writing any different, except […]
Continue ReadingThree people dead and more in hospital after a stabbing in Reading and the troglodytes on Twitter were bouncing with nervous energy. They needed a name, a nationality, or least a skin colour, before one side would be able to claim the high moral ground. Was it a white nationalist and a member of antifa? […]
Continue ReadingOne of the unintended consequences of publishing that book earlier in the week was that it forced me to think about the collection of new cartoons I was considering put out there. Turns out that this isn’t going to be as easy as I’d hoped… It’s not so much the work – so much work! […]
Continue Reading
A product of my Gag Machine but also, I thought, the best way to end a week which began with a filthy cartoon about Philip Schofield, then developed into a three-day exercise in republishing a book of slightly vulgar but hopefully funny tales (current sales: a hardly surprising zero), and which ended with my experimenting […]
Continue ReadingI never take selfies. It’s a rule I have but, I confess, this FaceApp fad I’ve spotted on Twitter did make me wonder what I’d look like as a woman. Yes, yes, I know. Stop the giggling at the back and don’t claim you’ve never wondered about the whole opposite-gender thing yourself. I didn’t exactly […]
Continue ReadingIt’s been a busy day. I wrote a new piece for Reaction, about the disclosures in John Bolton’s new book. Link here. I’ve also added a link to that other book I shall not name over on my Books Page. It still feels weird putting this book back out there. I’ll probably regret it in […]
Continue ReadingI found myself cursing Uncle Ben’s yesterday. Not because of the news that they’re about to undergo a name change. I’d bought their Spicy Mexican rice not realising that I wanted “Mexican-style” rice. The difference is sweetcorn, a substance that was put on this earth simply to torture me. I’m not sure why it exists […]
Continue ReadingI’m not sure this book is generating much interest on the blog (yes, it sounds crap until you “get it”) but I want to publish it anyway. I should never have unpublished it years ago but I certainly shouldn’t leave it lingering as a file on my PC. I also wrote the damn thing and […]
Continue Reading
So I drew the cover. Not what I initially planned, which was more outlandish and crazy but really beyond me. This is a straight cartoon and I would have preferred to shift into illustration, an area where I still feel weak. I browsed some book covers I liked and thought probably scale back my ambitions […]
Continue ReadingThe humidity has finally eased and the weather is fresher, which means it’s dipped below the threshold above which I struggle to work. Monday I wrote solidly. My piece appeared on Reaction yesterday [click here]. Tuesday, however, was a wipe-out, except for my proofreading my old book. I really want to get back to other […]
Continue ReadingWhy Dunciad.com?
It’s a cool domain name and it was available. Yes, I know. Available. Crazy, isn’t it?
Really?
Yes. It also helps that it’s also my favourite satire written by Alexander Pope, one of the most metrically pure English poets who also knew his way around a crude insult or two. If you’ve not read it, you should give it a try.
So this is satire, right?
Can’t deny it. There will be some. But it’s also an experiment in writing and drawing, giving work away for free in order to see how many people are willing to support a writer doing his thing. It’s the weird stuff that I wouldn’t get published elsewhere in this word of diminishing demands and cookie-cutter tastes.
