This Post is Potty

I was taught pottery (the posh word is ceramics now) at school by Gordon Baldwin and over the years have seen his work in galleries, at The Ashmolean Museum and The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich.

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Categorised as Art

Serious Money

An American reader puts down his copy of The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham and, after taking  a sip or two from a glass of Riesling, writes to remind me

Nombre de Vingt-Quatre

Last weekend BBC Radio 4 broadcast Air-Force One a play about the events immediately after John F Kennedy’s assassination on 22nd November, 1963. If you are my age you will remember where you were when you heard the news.

All About You and Heaven

Last week veteran BBC cricket commentator, Jonathan Agnew, was reprimanded for not wearing a tie when making a broadcast from the pavilion at Lord’s. This prompted Times journalist and P G Wodehouse Society member, Patrick Kidd, to recall a Wodehouse short story in which Lord Plumpton thinks he is being stung by wasps. His companion… Continue reading All About You and Heaven

Bricks, Money and ‘Phones

The reconstructed Berliner Schloss, referred to a couple of days ago in the post headed Athens 1931, is run by an organisation called the Humboldt Forum. Hence the Humboldt Box, that houses the exhibition about the project. It will have our Neil MacGregor as a Gründungsintendantenor or founding director.

Kentucky Calling

I lived in a large house, well really a castle, in Ireland as a child. It had one telephone placed under the stairs, made of Bakelite, with a circular label like a now defunct tax disc that read DUNLEER 5. This was useful if you forgot your number.

Athens , 1931

What happened in Athens in 1931? The drachma was introduced? The Greek government defaulted on a debt to Barings Bank? The Greek monarchy was restored? The Greek monarchy was abolished?

Drink Time!

“Drink Time! In the Company of Patrick Leigh Fermor” is a memoir by Dolores Payás describing her visits to his house in Greece near the village of Kardamili in Mani in the last two years of his life. It bursts with her affection and admiration for him and is an admirable coda to his life.… Continue reading Drink Time!

Oblast

Not O blast, try saying ob-last, preferrably with a Russian accent. Oblasts are provinces or administrative districts in Russia; there are 46 of them. This is a fairly useless bit of information, even for playing Scrabble, as who would want to squander two S tiles.

Friday

When I went to work in the City, nearly 40 years ago, there was a dispensation on Fridays; staff could wear tweed suits and brown shoes to segue to the weekend. My office was only a few years old and had air conditioning; unusual those days. Unless someone actually fell to the floor with a… Continue reading Friday