Brahms aged 20 in 1853 If anyone were ever to do anything as superficial as to run a competition for the most handsome composer of classical music, the prize would, undoubtedly in my opinion, go to an old man with…
I’ve been humbled by my exposure to the portrait photography of the great Man Ray after that exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery (until 27th May) and also a little inspired too. I bought the excellent exhibition catalogue which has…
I had lunch in the splendid National Portrait Gallery restaurant on Saturday with its panoramic views across London and where you almost meet Lord Nelson eye to eye on top of his Trafalgar Square column and where you don’t need…
I dead-head my last daffodil just as my tulips brought a new colour scheme into my small Lewes courtyard garden. Here is ‘Ballerina’ with her fiery elegance and bold vertical lines. They mix well with the blue of the grape…
Fritillaria meleagris, the snake’s head fritillary, is, most people claim, indigenous to the United Kingdom and was abundant in the days before we ploughed up most of our meadowland. I have always tried to grow them as, well, they’re wonderfully exotic for…
I found this photograph last week when sorting through some documents at my mother’s place. I had never seen it before but it instantly conjured up another age. My age when I was, well, young. Later that month, I would be going…
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Adam Lanza James Holmes Guns and exploding pressure cookers – where there’s a wacky deranged fantasist, a crazed religious fanatic or a cowardly terrorist, there’s danger for ordinary people on the streets. It doesn’t have…
(possibly) William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) Today is Shakespeare’s birthday, well, the day we call his birthday, it is also Saint George’s Day here in England. Let’s celebrate the great English poet then with his Sonnet 116, incorrectly numbered as…
My personal trainer, Phil, has left my gym – oh no, I thought. After the grief subsided (minutes later), I remembered that I used to be an enthusiast for gym-free training and when I lived in the country I sorted…