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 […]
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You 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 […]
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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 ReadingSometimes it takes a pandemic to change our behaviour. Other times it’s the sight of something so outrageously idiotic that makes you realise that things haven’t been good for a long time. Take the lamentable sight of MPs snaking around Westminster this week. Could there be a more convincing argument about reforming a system that’s […]
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 ReadingI missed the two-month anniversary of the blog which happened sometime last week when I was giving myself anxiety attacks over the Dominic Cummings story. Well, okay, “anxiety attacks” isn’t entirely the truth but I was feeling a bit Henry Fonda in Twelve Angry Men. I didn’t want Lee J. Cobb to shout at me. […]
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I was wrong. I admit that now, though I still think I was wrong for the right reasons. If you recall, I couldn’t get behind the hounding of Dominic Cummings because I didn’t think what he did was wrong. Looking after your child shouldn’t be something that weighs against any parent and I don’t care […]
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My Friday wasn’t great. It was one of those days when the world rejected my efforts, so by the time 10PM rolled around, I was done. No late-night drawing session watching one of the American news networks. I’d had enough of Trump, having written that long piece in the morning. The rioting was also getting […]
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.
