Welcome to the website of Dickon Edwards: writer, researcher, dysfunctional dandy and former member of the recording artistes Fosca and Orlando.
Dr Edwards holds a PhD in English and Humanities (Birkbeck University of London, 2022), and has kept a online diary since 1997. In May 2017, it was recognised as the UK’s longest running web diary by the Centre for Life-Writing Research at King’s College London, as part of their exhibition Dear Diary. The diary has appeared on TV (BBC1’s arts programme, Imagine) and in various periodicals across the world, from the UK’s Select (RIP) to Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter. In 2014 he was featured in the Guardian as one of Travis Elborough’s Top 10 Literary Diarists.
NEW! COLLECTED DIARIES VOL 1
For the first time ever, the online diary has been made into a book. Specially edited for the purpose by P&H Books of Glasgow, with a beautiful cover by Lawrence Gullo, Diary at the Centre of the Earth Vol transforms the diary into a handbag-friendly fashion accessory, as well as a comforting talisman to grab during a sudden eviction.
The first volume covers entries from 1997 to 2007. During this time, Dr Edwards leads his band Fosca to new heights, plays with the groups Spearmint and Scarlet’s Well, represents the Green Party for his beloved London district of Highgate, appears on the BBC’s Imagine series, serves as a literary and film critic for fledgling magazine Plan B, walks a lobster, serves as Shane McGowan‘s “New Romantic butler” in Tangier, and comes to terms with his newfound (and wholly accidental) status as a mildly prominent diarist.
“Invaluable … Historians seeking some understanding of what on earth went on in London in the late 1990s and beyond, just as they might turn to Pepys for the 1660s, have no better resource.” – Travis Elborough
Published October 2025.
Buy in print here
Buy as an e-book here
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Extracts from the diary have been published in four of Travis Elborough’s anthologies: A London Year (2013), A Traveller’s Year (2015), Our History of the 20th Century (2017), and Bus Fare (2018).
I AM DANDY
Dr Edwards was featured as one of the 57 modern dandies in I Am Dandy (2013), a large format book featuring beautiful portraits by photographer Rose Callahan alongside written profiles by Nathaniel ‘Natty’ Adams.
FOSCA
The last Fosca album The Painted Side Of The Rocket was released in 2008 on But Is It Art Records. 100 copies came packaged with a limited edition book of lyrics and other writings, The Portable Dickon Edwards.
The album is available digitally on iTunes. Alternatively, an MP3 version is on sale at Klicktrack.com
A live album, recorded at the Swedish festival ‘Rip It Up’ in 2007, is available online. More details here.
The Fosca website is here. There’s also a Fosca MySpace page.
ORLANDO
The Orlando album from 1997, Passive Soul, is available to download from iTunes. Various b-sides and extras are included. Amazon Marketplace sometimes carries copies of the original CD.
THE DECADENT HANDBOOK
Published by Dedalus Books. DE contributed an account of his first trip to Tangier with Shane MacGowan, plus a set-list from club night Beautiful & Damned, plus a photo of himself with Anne Pigalle, walking a lobster in homage to the French poet Gérard de Nerval. Available from Amazon.
SCARLET’S WELL – BLACK TULIP WINGS (Siesta Records)
Buy online.
Scarlet’s Well is a baroque-pop band fronted by Bid, formerly of The Monochrome Set. On their fifth album, Black Tulip Wings, Mr Edwards wrote the lyrics to a song called “Narcissus In The Maze”, set to music by Martin White.
The Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow
Mr Edwards wrote the Afterword for a new edition of Jerome K Jerome’s 1886 collection of wry essays, The Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow.
Published by Snowbooks.
