Eat, Drink, Shop

Arrive in a lofty atrium with a bar and shopping, then totter up a broad staircase to the first floor where another shop melds seamlessly into an Italian restaurant.

Modesty Blaise

Modesty Blaise, Joseph Losey’s 1966 offbeat, spoof, comedy caper, is a far cry from his other work: The Servant, The Go-Between, The Damned, Accident etc. But it does have a script by Harold Pinter (in part) and Dirk Bogarde who transformed himself from a matinée star for the Rank Organisation into a Losey favourite portraying… Continue reading Modesty Blaise

ISA Update

Just as the garden needs a bit of trimming and tidying so does an ISA.

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Categorised as Business

Restoration of Independence

Today marks the 34th anniversary of the Restoration of Independence in Estonia following four years of non-violent demonstrations in the Baltic States, known as The Singing Revolution.

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Categorised as History

The Barber in London

The Courtauld is one of my favourite London galleries but familiarity can breed ennui. I went again yesterday knowing what to expect but I was in for a surprise.

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Categorised as Art

Faces at an Exhibition

It used to be called the BP Portrait Award, open to British artists under forty. Lucy Willis won in 1992.

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Categorised as Art

Out to Lunch

Some good Italian and French restaurants in London close in August – so like Paris.

The Garrison Chapel

Members of the Royal Family as part of the job have to perform excruciatingly boring functions at best or, at worst, carry out engagements on advice from the Foreign Office through gritted teeth. So it is charming that King Charles can indulge his own whimsical fancies through The King’s Foundation – a Scottish charity that… Continue reading The Garrison Chapel

Three Times

“In the Church of England, marriage banns must be read three times . . . before a marriage can take place. These readings occur in the parish church of each person getting married and also in the church where the marriage will be solemnised, if it’s a different location.” (AI)

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Categorised as Literature

Miami Vice

“- Now, as you walk out to the plane, look neither to the right nor to the left. Just look straight ahead, okay? Just keep going straight ahead.”