Dogs and Deer in Norfolk

Dogs and Deer in Norfolk

After spending several days in Wells (of Norfolk, Next-the-Sea) I began gradually to be possessed by a conspiracy theory, one involving dogs.

Pompeii at the Ashmolean

Last Supper in Pompeii at Ashmolean Museum

The Exhibition’s title is not the most promising. Last Supper in Pompeii is glossed by the Ashmolean’s publicity as “…telling the story of this ancient Roman town’s love affair with food”. Last supper? Love affair with food? Oh really? Clunking metaphor and culinary cliché are not the obvious way to advertise the tragedy of Pompeii, except to a foodie archaeologist.

Blake at Tate

Blake at Tate

It is necessary for most people to be a bit picky when it comes to appreciating William Blake, who is the deserved subject of a large exhibition at Tate Britain (a "Blakebuster"?). Very few are those who have the patient scholarship to follow his art and writing through all their intricate visionary philosophies. Not many more, I should guess, fall into the category of general readers that, with the help of those scholars, have a good understanding of the preoccupations of his esoteric works.

Montreuil-next-the-Tunnel

Montreuil-next-the Tunnel

Just the other side of the Channel, less than hour’s easy drive from Calais, lies an enticing destination for a weekend visit (or even a day trip from southern England). This is the town of Montreuil sur Mer, a small but intricate and intriguing place a few miles from the coast. Once upon a time, up to the late Middle Ages, its river was a coastal, navigable estuary- hence the town’s now misleading name. That was also the reason for its original strategic importance. The strategic position led to Montrueil’s natural escarpment being continually fortified, and re-fortified (because occasionally sacked) over the centuries, culminating, after a final sacking by a Spanish-English army, in the C16 citadel and walls which still distinguish the town. The old part is enclosed by high ramparts, unbroken except by one road, with a goodly fort at the South West corner.

Eye Surgery at Opera Holland Park

Eye surgery at Opera Holland Park and Other Distractions

The temporary structure erected in Holland Park for a couple of months every summer has the feeling, if not the roundness, of a circus big top. It is set up against the side of Milord Holland’s C17 mansion, partly ruined, partly still used. This is the 1,000-seat arena for Opera Holland Park. 

Yesterday (film)

Yesterday(Film)

The cinematic world of Richard Curtis (film-maker and scriptwriter) is a multiverse – of sorts. The premise of Yesterday (a Curtis-written and Danny Boyle-directed film) is a strange switch in space-time to a world identical (or at least very similar) to our own, apart from the curious fact that certain pop cultural events have never happened (Coca-Cola, Harry Potter and, importantly, the Beatles).

Tom Bowling and Frank Bowling

Tom Bowling; Frank Bowling

Tom Bowling is a song written towards the end of the C18 by Charles Dibdin. Dibdin was a succesful (but not always financially) singer, composer and popular dramatist. Tom Bowlingis his most famous, and long lasting, song. In modern times it has been given an arrangement by Benjamin Britten. It is, of course, Britten and Peter Pears that have produced the benchmark recording of the arrangement.