Members of White’s are proud that their club is the oldest gentleman’s club in London, founded in 1693. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge are members. Across the Irish Sea the Hibernian Catch Club was already thriving – it was founded circa 1680 – and I never knew of its existence until… Continue reading The Hibernian Catch Club
Category: Travel
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Everybody loves a Rembrandt. They go mad for him. Pre-blog I went to the Rijksmuseum at opening time on a Sunday morning. It was almost empty until we got to The Night Watch where the crowd was five deep. You can dangle his contemporaries, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Peter Paul Rubens and get a nibble… Continue reading Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
From the Banks of the Neva
This is the beginning but it’s in Finnish: “rakentaa kuin Iisakin Kirkkoa”. Put it into Google Translate, unless you speak Finnish, and you get: “to build like the Church of Isaac”. A Finn might use this expression referring to the Heathrow expansion plans or the construction of Crossrail and HS2; in fact any project that… Continue reading From the Banks of the Neva
From Russia …
The Romanov Tombs You need to know your iconostasis from your elbow and not muddle them up with a reredos in Russian churches. But let’s get back to my childhood at Barmeath. My grandfather was a fount of knowledge and I lapped it up, like I slurp gin now. The general sense of the story… Continue reading From Russia …
Midnight in Minsk
y Every Picture Tells a Story Sveltana Alexievich has a flat in this apartment building. She knows how to tell a story. She has written about the Second World War, sorry The Great Patriotic War, the war in Afghanistan and Chernobyl. Her technique is to interview people and tell the story through their words. This… Continue reading Midnight in Minsk
Barons Court to Belarus
Local Film Star Anthony Quayle is the only actor in the picture most people will remember; for his parts in Ice Cold in Alex and Lawrence of Arabia, probably. He was not as well known in 1935 as Roy Byford in the centre. Roy (1873-1939) was in a fair few early films beginning in 1916 but… Continue reading Barons Court to Belarus
Carreg Cennen to Kathmandu
Leptis Magna and Virginia Water
May Hill
Planting Trees
English gardens and parkland changed decisively in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as plant hunters brought specimens back from Asia. EH ‘Chinese” Wilson was one of the most famous, bringing around two thousand plants and trees back to Britain and America, while working for James Veitch & Sons in Chelsea and the Arnold… Continue reading Planting Trees