Alyce Chaucer
Tucked away at the end of a straggling Oxfordshire village, very near to the modernity of an RAF base (a modest one, to be sure) is a group of C15 buildings, still serving their original purposes. The history of these buildings, and that of their chief creator and lasting benefactor, is the story in microcosm of that turbulent and significant century.
John Lennon: “One to One” Documentary
It opens with Lennon on stage in New York singing to rapturous response from the young, hippy-ish looking audience.
The Lorca House and other buildings
In Granada
There’s an American children’s classic, written in the 1940s, called The Little House. It tells the story, with delightful and clever illustrations, of the eponymous dwelling, built in isolation in the countryside.
Empty Old Towns- Rye and Cordoba
Rye in Sussex and Cordoba in Spain don’t have much in common except that both can boast a picturesque, well preserved old centre (with many cobbled streets).
A Complete Unknown
There were moments while watching the film A Complete Unknown when I was almost in tears. This was not because of the nostalgic revisit to Dylan’s music that I grew up with, powerfully though the film recreates its beginnings. Well, partly, of course. But mostly because of dissonance and disappointment across the decades since.
Cadiz
What distinguishes modern Cadiz? One thing indubitably- the magnificent, 3 plus kilometre Constitution of 1812 bridge, opened 10 years ago this year, which links the city to the north-westerly mainland. It completes a triad of ways of getting into the city without a boat: the long, thin isthmus on which Cadiz perches, and the earlier late twentieth century bridge to the east.
Milton Keynes and Vanessa Bell
Between late October 2024 and early January 2025 I’ve been in two cities that boast a lengthy central road or vista: Washington DC and Milton Keynes.
The juxtaposition is unfair. The National Mall in Washington is imperial: end-stopped by the Capitol and the Washington Monument, wide and green, and flanked by large and wonderful neo-classical (for the most part) buildings.
There’s a pub in Kentish Town called the Crash and Fail (also known as the Bull and Gate). Owned by the once estimable Young’s Brewery, it’s a large place, with a long curving bar fronting the frontage; a vast room at the back (once a music venue) and a spacious upstairs, with another bar.
