Out and About
When you need a little perspective in your life, plant yourself in a big landscape. Preferably on top of a mountain. Last week saw a welcome return to the Lake District, which has become our home from home. Day One Matt and I arrive by our chosen modes of transport. (I have an inner ear condition that makes me feel…
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My mother’s choice of birthday treat was an afternoon outing to the Musical Museum at Brentford (www.musicalmuseum.co.uk) to see two films starring (and when I say ‘starring’, I should really say written, directed and produced by andstarring), Buster Keaton, accompanied by a 1929 Wurlitzer which was manufactured for a private home in the USA and then spent 30…
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Ruth Wilson is a commanding presence. Still fresh from drama school, she was selected by Stephen Poliakoff to play both – very different – female parts in Capturing Mary. She was both unnerving and magnificent as Alice Morgan in BBC1’s Luther. I had the privilege of seeing her on stage yesterday afternoon playing the part…
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Sundays are designed for a stroll up the South Bank with only a very vague plan in mind. Our first distraction was the Ray Harryhauser exhibition at the London Film Museum. The museum feels temporary. Small rooms with high ceilings and long marble corridors. There is no cash desk – just a till placed on a side…
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In search of a January day out in London on a shoestring, we took a trip to the British Museum to view the Staffordshire Hoard, accompanied by dozens of sticky-fingered kids who had already left their marks on the two glass cases. Whilst I am sympathetic to the lobby for the retention of the find…
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For all those of you who are in the midst of Christmas preparations, a reminder that Christmas arrived late last year. It didn’t require a fanfare, or cards, presents, wrapping paper or tinsel. It was a day when the schools were closed but the pubs and parks were full. Families spent time together. Adults remembered what it felt…
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I don’t know what it says about the current state of the music industry that the nation has taken Seasick Steve to their hearts. Brixton Academy was busier than I have ever seen it before, some of the audience being of the too young to buy watered-down beer variety. But, afterall, this is a man who…
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It was a rotten Wednesday evening to be dragged out on: dark by six o’clock and relentlessly wet. The whole population of London had simulatiously forgotten how to drive and parking in Wimbledon Town centre – well, you could forget it! As I stood at the door of Waterstones on ticket collection duty, it seemed…
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Kamila Shamsie is not the sort of speaker I had been hoping to see this week. She was frighteningly accomplished. Perhaps she should be. The author of five published novels, she is six years younger than me. By my rather crude calculations, she must have had her first novel published when she was in her mid-twenties….
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