I 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 I should never have unpublished it years ago but I certainly shouldn’t leave it lingering as a file on my PC.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 ReadingMonday, 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 ReadingAn example of a very modern problem which, of course, begins on Twitter… It was over there that I read a “fact” which was so good that I had to verify it. Martin Rowson, always a great source of political stories, quoted something he remembered reading by Geoffrey Wheatcroft about the young Winston Churchill defacing […]
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It’s a warm lazy Saturday so I thought I’d give my brain a bit of a workout and paddle it around that husk of nothingness floating in a sea of irrelevance that is Nigel Farage. I drew a cartoon yesterday in a fit of… well, “pique” isn’t the right word. It makes it sound too […]
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I’m not, I hope, unreasonable. I even hope people who contact me find me pleasant to deal with. I try to be quite generous with my time and attention. I essentially like people and enjoy talking to them. Nothing delights me more than getting a fun message or email. Where I draw the line, however, […]
Continue ReadingIn The Mail on Sunday, this week, Peter Hitchens again writes about what he calls the “Great Panic”. He complains that those that challenge him “choose to abuse me, often with lies, personal smears and swearwords.” He goes further: “Your childish, intolerant reaction has strengthened me in my conviction that mine is the better case. […]
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Is anybody really surprised by the news that a record 3.3 million Americans sought unemployment benefit in just the last week? Is anybody properly shocked by the realisation that so many of our fellow human beings had jobs that had absolutely no security should a crisis hit the US economy? This isn’t so much a […]
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One fine Athenian morning, Socrates, the wisest of men, sat warming his bones in his favourite spot in the old marketplace. Around him sat his students, fiercely arguing in the hope of impressing their teacher. Nothing made Socrates happier than listening to young people debate the issues of the day, so much so, in fact, […]
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I wrote the following in 2018 and swore that I’d never give it away. It seemed too good to waste. At the time, I had ambitions for it. Perhaps somebody might pay to publish it. Perhaps it could get me through one of those doors that I’d heard about but for which I didn’t even […]
Continue ReadingI once said I’d rather snort Marmite than write another blog. So, what happened? Coronavirus happened plus a few other things, though my hatred of Marmite remains. Web hosting has got a lot cheaper (at least for the first year), my better mood has returned with the sunnier weather, longer days and copious intake of […]
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.
