Month: August 2018

Tractors, Tracksuits and a Turtle

The big four-wheel drives used to drop the children at school were known as Chelsea Tractors – I never imagined it was a compliment but it gave somebody an idea as there is a real Chelsea Truck Co.

Divan

Last week Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra were back at the Proms. How on earth did the orchestra get such a silly name? The Penguin Cafe Orchestra is a silly name too.

Published
Categorised as Music, Poetry

Trouble in Haiti

A comment yesterday drawing attention to the exoticism of the coats of arms of many African countries reminds me of an esoteric volume held by The College Of Arms.

Published
Categorised as Art, History

White Lion

Forty years ago every second hand bookshop was stuffed with copies of Osbert Sitwell’s four volume autobiography; handsome, salmon hardbacks with sun-faded spines published by Macmillan. They were not expensive then, nor are they now.

Wrest in Peace

Wrest Park belonged to the de Grey family until it was sold in 1917. They were made Earls of Kent in the reign of Edward IV and then the 12th Earl was created Duke of Kent in 1710. Confusingly he was also Lord Lucas. However, there was no heir to the Dukedom and Wrest was… Continue reading Wrest in Peace

Wrest is History

Wednesday 15th August, The Feast of the Assumption. Nikolaus Pevsner has a reputation for being dry to the point of dullness, so the dedication in his 1968 guide in The Buildings of England series,  Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough surprised me. 

The Taxman Cometh

It may not seem like it but Income Tax rates in the UK are the lowest since I became a tax payer.

Published
Categorised as Politics

Swans and a Sesquicentenary

There are few swans on the tidal stretch of the Thames between Hammersmith and Richmond. Recently I have seen three where the Grand Union Canal joins the river at Brentford and I assume they come from the canal for a change of scenery.

Picnic

This picture is in the National Gallery of Victoria. It inspired Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock. Some great novels have a great first sentence.

Leavers

In the Spring of 1951 the Tate had an exhibition. This is how top-notch art dealer Geoffrey Agnew described it.

Published
Categorised as Art