Absent-Minded Window-Gazing
What are we to do with these spring days that are now fast coming on? I had not thought I would need to do anything. When I arrived home, I fully expected to find waiting for me, on the desk … Continue reading
What are we to do with these spring days that are now fast coming on? I had not thought I would need to do anything. When I arrived home, I fully expected to find waiting for me, on the desk … Continue reading
It is one of the enduring mysteries of contemporary life. How can it be, I hear you cry, that there is not a blockbusting Hollywood franchise based on Hooting Yard? Imagine for a moment that there existed a dimwitted action-packed … Continue reading
One foul sunlit morning in the late 1950s, Dobson sat at the breakfast table gazing into space, like a man whose head was entirely vacant. “Whatever is the matter, Dobson?” asked the out of print pamphleteer’s inamorata, Marigold Chew, between … Continue reading
A rare film still from the even rarer documentary film Tiny Enid – Plucky Tot, never, so far as we know, ever screened, anywhere, ever, and almost certainly lost.
Nappa Gisburn brought to my attention a television programme entitled Lobstermen : Jeopardy At Sea, screened on something called the Quest Channel. I did not see it, but then, as Mr Gisburn himself noted, it was probably less exciting than … Continue reading
Today’s tenth anniversary piece is from Tuesday 24 March 2009, and is entitled The Pavilion By The Shore. There is a pavilion by the shore. I do not go there any more. I used to visit every day on my … Continue reading
For me, the highlight of the recent Old Scratchy Black And White Newsreel Footage Of Tiny Fascists Film Festival was the exceedingly rare old scratchy black and white newsreel footage of Tiny Enid. The plucky fascist tot was filmed, possibly … Continue reading
Readers will be familiar with the plucky fascist tot Tiny Enid, but I have only recently learned of the existence of her cousin and sometime playmate, Eerie Mavis. Eerie Mavis spent much of her time loitering in a barn, mucking … Continue reading
In my debilitated state, felled by germs and much given to whimpering, writing one thousandish words upon any subject at all is quite beyond me. On the other hand, if readers are to read then writers must write. It occurred … Continue reading
One of the simplest concepts to grasp, when embarking on the study of trees, is the difference between the bark and the sap. Indeed it is so simple that I am not going to bother explaining it to you. You … Continue reading
There is a big damp building and at the top of the building there is an attic and in the attic are stacked some wooden crates and in one of the crates, wrapped up in yellowing newspaper, there is a … Continue reading
Dan Chambers sent me this snap of a sampler, taken in the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. The provenance card states that it was made by a girl named Enid, aged fourteen, so, as Dan says, “maybe not so tiny”. … Continue reading
Word reaches me that there may be one or two Hooting Yard readers who may not be attending the Evening of Lugubrious Music and Lopsided Prose at Woolfson & Tay bookshop in precisely two weeks’ time. I find this hard … Continue reading
Dear Mr Key, writes Tim Thurn, Always keen to keep abreast of the latest happenstances in popular culture, last evening I sat me down with a mug of cocoa and a bag of filberts to watch the Mercury Music Prize … Continue reading
Recently I posted a piece about a giant who roars “Fee Fi Fo Fum!” and smells the blood of an Englishman, and a couple of years ago I became enthusiastic about Thomas Nashe (1567-c.1601) among whose works is the splendidly … Continue reading