There are cardigans to be seen elsewhere

Yet again, in a shameless attempt to get my phone number through dishonestly claiming that someone is trying to impersonate me, the providers of this site have denied me access. That's why I'm moving to a new blog. I'm progressively, and a bit selectively, copying across the material from here and will be adding new stuff soon. See you all (!) over there.

Thank you.

Book Review

No cardigan enthusiast's bookshelf should be without the I-Spy Book of Cardigans (Scholastic, £19.99, 180pp, hardback). This is a sumptuously illustrated book of cardigans for the hardened cardigan enthusiast. It must be said that if you are an enthusiast you'll not fail to be hardened by this collection.

The authors have emphasised the vintage over the modern, but not ignored the cardigan revival of recent years. Collectors may wish to buy the book for its coverage of the modern, despite its limitations in that department, simply because, as the authors point out, it can't go on forever and the previous fallow period lasted for many years. There is unlikely to be such a good historical overview published in the foreseeable future.

In addition to the illustrations there are fascinating sections on cardigan etiquette (did you know, for example, that ethical cardigan wearers refuse to eat broken glass?), the history of cardigan fetishism, biographies of famous cardigan wearers and a compendium of cardigan sexual practices. There are also washing instructions for most fabrics.

By far the most interesting section, though, is the account of a period spent as the cardigan sex slave of a Basingstoke haberdasher. This gruelling saga covers years of humiliation and physical deprivation and much cardigan action. It is unclear who the actual author of this section is, but the detail leaves this reader in no doubt that the account is authentic and unembellished. The Financial Times reviewer accused this section of being little more than misery porn. This reviewer would beg to differ, having recently visited Basingstoke, it looks like quite a nice town. Without giving away too much, it can safely be said that the haberdasher had it coming to him, his premises are now occupied by a branch of Greggs. A fitting end to a sorry saga.

I hesitate to say that this is a book no self respecting cardiganwearer can do without, but really it is, there is so little otherwise to chronicle such an engaging and stimulating fetish. If you propose to read it with a friend or partner, may I suggest making sure you have plenty of lubricant.

The I Spy Book of Cardigans

That several pages of our review copy were stuck together says much for this ambitious volume; that we were unable to review those pages is a disappointment soon to be remedied when we buy our own copy. Recommended, go out and find a copy.

Posh

I am inclined, when the weather permits, to take the occasional constitutional through the medium of a long walk. Where I live there is a posh bit of town and it's in that direction I often head. The ostentation and vulgarity on display there are breathtaking. A conversation I had with a stranger on one such outing included his observing that they can't all be footballers and drug dealers. Whatever they are, they are bereft of taste.

A recent story in the Mail online confirms that one at least is a footballer, who can't sell his gaudy property for what he paid for it a year ago and has taken it off the market. It's back on now at half a million (give or take a bit) less than he paid for it. That's nearly two week's wages down the pan; I cry myself to sleep some nights, I really do.

What's this got to do with cardigans? Well, my walk takes me down Cardigan Road and pathetic as it is, that gives me a slight thrill. When I moved house a couple of years back, I did look to see if there was a way I could live in a Cardigan Street/Road/Avenue or whatever. There were many other considerations that shaped my final choice and I had quite forgotten that I'm within a couple of miles of a Cardigan Road.

This got me thinking about how many Cardigan denominated thoroughfares there might be in England and Wales (the first online gazetteer I stumbled across didn't include Scotland). There are upwards of ninety. Most are visible on google earth, some have the street signs obscured by google. Here's the one I walk down.

Cardigan Road

This month's cardigans I don't actually own. There's a few left at this rather posh retailer for eighty quid a pop, reduced from a hundred and seventy. I won't be buying any. Not because of the price, you understand, but because they don't have any left in my size. Any regular reader would know by now that I would happily sell the house for a good cardigan. Unfortunately, living so close to footballers hasn't done much for prices locally.

If only they had them in my size