The Babbington Press

19/07/2025

“Most people just want somebody to pay attention to them — just like me, and just like you, when you get right down to it.” Lou, in Episode 1015 of Peter Leroy’s Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations. Free on Substack.

Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 45 continues: We sat there for a while in silence. I was trying to think of the right words with which to begin to broach the subject of his buying the hotel as a way out of the world he had come to hate, as a cave in which to hide from it. . . .

18/07/2025

“Thundering winds pummeled the hotel all night, drafts blowing through the windows and under the doors.” Peter Leroy, in Episode 1014 of his Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations. Free on Substack. https://peterleroy.substack.com/p/1014-thundering-winds

17/07/2025

“Baldy the Dummy was miserable throughout his program that night.” Peter Leroy, in Episode 1013 of his Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations. Free on Substack. https://peterleroy.substack.com/p/1013-baldy-the-dummy

16/07/2025

“There’s something artificial about it. The hand of nature is not as sure as this, not this steady.” Peter Leroy, in Episode 1012 of his Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations. Free on Substack. https://peterleroy.substack.com/p/1012-the-reading

15/07/2025

“Beyond this lovely little island lies the land of s**t triumphant,” Jane, of the couple dick and Jane, in Episode 1011 of the Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy. Free on Substack.

Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 44 begins: DICK AND JANE returned, as they had said they would, and Albertine gave them their old room, as she had said she would, but it wasn’t the same as it had been when they left it, because during their absence Alice had redecorated it . . .

12/07/2025

“I would like to say a little something about getting caught up in one’s own work, something I sometimes call the art of self-deception.” Peter Leroy in Episode 1010 of his Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations. Free on Substack.

Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 43 concludes: WHEN I FINISHED, I said, “I would like to say a little something about getting caught up in one’s own work, something I sometimes call the art of self-deception.

11/07/2025

“The digging was finished. What we had at that point, it occurs to me now, was a form without content.” Peter Leroy in Episode 1009 of his Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations. Free on Substack.

Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 43 continues: MY AUDIENCE for “Refinements and Improvements,” episode forty-three of Dead Air, consisted of the remaining inmates — Lou, Elaine, Clark and Alice, Artie and Nancy, Louise and Miranda, Tony T and Cutie, Loretta, Theodore and Carolina, Mark, Margot...

10/07/2025

In Episode 1008 of The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy, Manuel Pedrera says, “I took out that stuff about the dignity of small lives and went back to some of those hideous urges I had and now it’s got a kind of edge to it.”� Free on Substack.

Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 43 begins: ONE STEP FORWARD, one step back. With two clients for Memoirs While You Wait, I spent hours planning how to deal with the crush of new clients that was clearly on its way, or would be on its way just as soon as Manuel and Porky did their word-of-mouth work...

09/07/2025

In Episode 1007 of The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy, Albertine asks, “Do you know where the word camouflage comes from, my sweet?” Free on Substack.

Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 42 concludes: IN BED, Albertine asked, “Do you know where the word camouflage comes from, my sweet?” I said, “No, ma petite. I confess that I do not, but I imagine that you are going to tell me that it comes from the name of one of your countrymen, a Capitaine ...

08/07/2025

In Episode 1006 of The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy, Peter says, “The fish had begun to smell by the time I read episode forty-two of Dead Air, “Playing to the House.” The odor hadn’t penetrated the hotel yet, but I knew from experience that it would the next day.” Free on Substack.

Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 42 continues: THE FISH had begun to smell by the time I read episode forty-two of Dead Air, “Playing to the House.” The odor hadn’t penetrated the hotel yet, but I knew from experience that it would the next day. . . .

04/07/2025

In Episode 1005 of The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy, Peter says, “of the two prevailing tendencies of every author — either not to say things that should be said or to say many things that do not need to be said — mine is the latter.” Free on Substack. https://peterleroy.substack.com/p/1005-the-last

01/07/2025

In Episode 1002 of The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy, Porky White describes his struggles to make a vegetarian clam for Kap’n Klam, his worldwide string of bivalve-based family restaurants. Free on Substack.

Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 41 continues: JUST BEFORE I began reading “The Art of Obvious Subtlety,” episode forty-one of Dead Air, a guest arrived from out of the past. He slipped into the back of the room — as well as a big man with a face familiar to millions can slip into a room — a...