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More a pamphlet than a book – I was intrigued into this by seeing it on a friend’s “recently read” feed. It’s a 60-ish page essay on the character of Alexander Boris DePfeffel Johnson, and given his temperament and past history of lying and criminal-adjacent activity & disrespect for the rule of law it simply…
A companion to his excellent Whisky manual, but geared at The Sugar Spirit – Broom-san deploys his mixer-led grading system to inform notes on a load of different styles of rums, and paves the way to educate on different styles & processes for what turns out is a VASTLY complex territory for knowledge. And people…
An autobiography posthumously discovered in an attic, of one of the British comedy scene’s most distinctive enigmas. Though he died incredibly early at 48 his life was packed with more living than most people – my head was spinning at having read of his adventures dossing in parks, touring the country performing, working in Paris,…
One could be forgiven for feeling a little bleak about one’s adopted country on the face of reading this – if it weren’t abundantly clear that the author had started with THOUSANDS of similar incidents and narrowed it down to a more digestible 52. Coupled with the barrage of human dickishness I’ve been mainlining from…
Began as a fascinating exploration of the pulling of various strings to manipulate senses into contrarian experiences for people trying things, and somehow partway through turned into a love letter from the author to the Italian Futurists. Not helped by my continual confusing of Prof. Charles Spence with Prof. Richard Wiseman. I’m vaguely disgusted that…
The history of Soho’s Colony Room Club – a gathering place of Bohemians, artists, and free thinkers – established in 1948 by the redoubtable Muriel Belcher and closed in 2008. In that time it was home to a rollcall of Britain’s alternative art establishment, and as with many of London’s private clubs the source of…
Randall from XKCD has collected a bunch of thought-scoping exercises here about how to solve fairly basic problems (such as how to dig a hole) and then extrapolated to some less-basic ones (such as building a lava moat around your house) in such a way that gets you considering the notion of problem-solving by indirect…
For the first time, comedy LEGEND Billy Connolly has put “pen to paper” to record some of his dizzying array of stories collected over the years and meted out to audiences in packed houses across the globe. You can’t begrudge the man for wanting to share. Trouble is, as a huge fan and someone who’s…
Wonderfully written insight into the approaches & attitudes of James O’Brien in being a liberal talkback radio host, and the sorts of thoughts and beliefs he has as he encounters the sorts of callers he has on a daily basis. Ultimately I took his message as one of hope – hope that by asking people…
A collection of autobiographical stories by the founder of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society which falls just short of being interesting – I’d sort of hoped for more depth on the founding of the society beyond the usual story about how “a few friends bought a cask, then decided to do it again”… and I…