Mrs Jay Wilkinson of The Southern Early Music Forum in the UK raises the following alert: "The V & A are intending to place in long-term storage its collection of historic musical instruments, which is unparalleled in the UK. The reason for this destruction, given by a V & ...
Another exacting theme for the weekly blog - choosing a favourite novel! I wonder, if I perform this series of tasks with aplomb, do I get to marry the Prince? Maybe it would be easier to empty the pond with a thimble, or hew down the whole forest and chop the trunks into logs before nightfall. Certainly it isn't easy to see the wood for the ...
Strictly speaking, St Agnes' Eve was yesterday. Disappointingly, I can't recall any sort of dream last night. This could, of course, be due to my failure in meeting the conditions outlined (fairly euphemistically) in Keats' famous poem. St. Agnes' Eve - Ah, bitter chill it was!The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;The hare limp'd ...
The Berkeley Trilogy is novelised biography. Lydia Sharpe, Susan’s servant so admired by Billy Cole, had returned to her first mistress. They were living in a house in Half Moon Street, a short distance from the Half Moon tavern. In Susan’s boudoir, Lydia was busy removing a tray of cups with chocolate kettle and ...
The tallest order yet for the weekly blog theme is to share a favourite poem. Among my top ten are three already mentioned, one from Rupert Brooke, one from Robert Browning and this from T S Eliot. Brooke excels at pace and poignant reflection. Browning's main strength is the dramatic monologue. It ...
Measure not the work until the day's out and the labour's done. Elizabeth Barrett Browning I write therefore I am. To tweak Descartes a little. Even he had to take up the pen! It's what I do, what I have to do. It is the oxygen of life. To live without it is to skate across the bewildering surface of things, loose in the universe and ...
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