Monday, so time for one of those general rambling blog posts, which isn’t about any of the big issues of the day but my outlook, plans for the week, and where I am. First of all: still in lockdown. Admittedly, it’s largely because my ordinary life wouldn’t look hugely different to non-lockdown life, though it […]
Continue ReadingA not particularly insightful thought occurred to me yesterday as I watched the ugly scenes around Westminster. My opposition to the far right is as much a physical reaction to their kind as it is an intellectual position I’ve found myself taking throughout my life. I hasten to add that this doesn’t mean I’m not […]
Continue ReadingI have never flashed a stranger in my life. I thought I better get that out there (no pun intended) at the start. One of the current trends that annoys me the most is the need to state things which, in a mature and civil society, shouldn’t need stating. I’m also not a serial killer. […]
Continue ReadingThe re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter as a cultural force means the usual divisive stories are again dominating the headlines. They amount to a screaming match going on around the so-called “cancellation of white culture”. Classic movies such as Gone With The Wind are being withdrawn so producers can give them more historical context […]
Continue Reading
Feeling a bit knackered today so I probably won’t write a huge amount. I will, however, post the above cartoon because it’s another of those that I wouldn’t get published anywhere else. It’s one that either works for you or it doesn’t. I could explain why I think it works (the incongruity, the cruelty, the […]
Continue Reading
My blog is unusual, I guess, in that I’m not entirely preoccupied with one kind of work. I write but I also draw, which probably means that people who enjoy my writing hate my drawings or visa versa. I try to cater to both audiences (tiny, minuscule, non-existent though they are) but that can be […]
Continue ReadingYou probably saw that the Black Lives Matter protests in Bristol yesterday escalated to people dragging down the statue of a seventeenth-century slave trader, Edward Colston, and dumping it in the harbour. Among the many hills that people would be wise not to die on, this is surely one of the tallest. That’s not, however, […]
Continue ReadingJ.K. Rowling has gone where it would have been wiser not to go last night when she leapt into the whole trans debate on Twitter. It’s not that she shouldn’t have a voice or that these issues aren’t important to discuss but… on Twitter? Really? There are people on there still discussing the flatness of […]
Continue ReadingI’ve been thinking a lot about common decency in recent days, prompted, I suppose, by the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of policemen. That’s not to say that I mean to write about events of Minneapolis last week. I think it’s right to tread carefully around the subject of Black Lives Matter […]
Continue ReadingFriday night and I have a new piece over at Reaction on the way that social media shaped the current protests in the US. Click here to go read it. It’s been something of a strange day. I’ve been solidly drawing cartoons but also distracted by the news that the R number has risen above […]
Continue Reading
I had an idea yesterday which, having survived the night, might not be a bad one. As you might know, I’ve been fumbling around for weeks, wondering what’s wrong with me. I’d concluded that it’s because I don’t have a project on the go. It’s all fine drawing these gag cartoons which I might (probably […]
Continue ReadingI’m writing a second blog post for the day because I haven’t quite satisfied my urge to write. I guess it speaks to my underlying need to feel relevant (even to myself) whilst recognising the reality that people aren’t exactly beating down my door to ask me for work. It’s probably one of the many […]
Continue ReadingI’m beginning to regret mentioning education in the last podcast. I seem to be getting nothing but criticism from people who believe they understand my life better than I know it myself. The fact that I think reading is taught poorly in schools and that students should be introduced to a wide range of material, […]
Continue ReadingI was going to write today but my neighbours have decided that this is…. GRRRR… the day they’re going to drill/hammer through the damn wall. I get these fifteen-second windows in which I can think and write before… GRRRRRR… And I’m back with another snatched thought. My intention was writing an article about last night […]
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.
