Retail Travail

As more people shop online the retail sector in the UK is having to adapt.  I wonder if this trend is reflected in the shops around Barons Court station?

A History Lesson

“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history that we make today.” That’s what Henry Ford thought in 1916. Today Dr Michael Axworthy (above) disagrees.

Published
Categorised as History

Wiggers

On Sunday I went to a concert at the Wigmore Hall. Wiggers works its socks off: they put on about 400 performances annually and don’t just sit back and enjoy the million pounds they get in funding from the Arts Council; they both raise money and sell tickets – hoorah!

My Four Green Fields

This is by Hilda van Stockum, a Dutch writer of childrens books and an artist. She spent part of her life in Ireland where she met Evie Hone and painted this portrait, probably at Marley, in Rathfarnham, where Evie had a house and studio.

Published
Categorised as Art, Family

Fulham Opera

As English National Opera struggles to fill their £5 million annual deficit a new opera house is born. This is St. John’s church in Fulham, West London.

Published
Categorised as Music

Out of Africa

My cousin, Caroline, made a comment the other day about rowing on the lake at Barmeath. It is always called a lake although I have a suspicion it is really a big pond. Whatever it is, it was created as an ornamental feature with islands and a rustic bridge in the 18th century.

Published
Categorised as Family

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I’m not going to apologise for banging on about the In/Out referendum in the UK in June. It is much more important for the UK than any General Election and of great significance for the future of the EU itself.

From Norwich to Venice

In a recent post, More Chronicles of War, I mentioned Diana Cooper’s letters to her son, Darling Monster. This week I had lunch with the darling monster, better known as John Julius Norwich.