MICROPOST Thrust: A Spasmodic Pictorial History of the Codpiece in Art by Michael Glover

I read another of the David Zwirner Books ekphrasis series and this one, unlike the others I’ve read, is far from being the engaging – if weirdly flawed – publication I expected, and instead reads like a beautifully presented but vapid listicle.

Rather than an analysis of the appearance of the codpiece in visual art or even a brief history of the rapid rise, brief elevation and rapid fall of the codpiece (like an erection (well, when you’re young – one of the most borinf effects of ageing in a body with a penis is the increasingly slow loss of tumescence – it’s like, y’know, yawwwwwn))

Anyway, this book is unanalytical, it’s basically a fucking toilet book, it has a series of drawings and paintings from the brief period of the codpiece’s prominence and then has a smirky, flaccid, description of each with a gentle sorta irreverence.

It’s… ah… a bad book, tho would have been a perfectly serviceable listicle back when those were a thing that people read.

Youth, like listicles, is not truly wasted on the young.

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scott manley hadley aka SOLID BALD live

Here’s a video of me recently performing at the prestigious (it has a Wikipedia page) comedy night, Quantum Leopard. Listen to how much fun the crowd is having. You could have that much fun, too!

Forthcoming gigs include the following – there may/will be others:

18th February 2026, 7.30pm: Laughable, Wanstead Library

26th February 2026: Mirth Control, Bexhill-on-Sea

12th March 2025: BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER 30 MIN WIP at Glasgow International Comedy Festival

26th March 2026, 7.30pm: Comedy @ Cosmic, Plymouth

May 2026: BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER FULL LENGTH WIP at the BRIGHTON FRINGE