As regular readers will know – I am a big fan of ruins. Give me a crumbling castle to explore, or an abandoned abbey, and I’m set for hours of enjoyment. I love the history of such places and like to wonder about the people who lived there. What I normally don’t expect is to…
Like so many things, it all started with Leonardo da Vinci. Then it took a few hundred years for the rest of the world to catch up. I’ve just spent a wonderful day wandering around the museums in South Kensington – something I highly recommend. There’s far too much to see in one day and…
On a recent museum trip – I saw images from the Qajar dynasty in Persia – the period from 1795 -1925. The display focused on the women of that period. My attention was caught by description of the beautiful women of the Qajar court – paragons of beauty with a thick monobrow and moustache. Today’s women…
As part of my ongoing love affair with museums, I recently lost myself for a few hours in the fabulous Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. The building is a work of art in itself – a beautiful collection of lines and shapes and angles on the outside and modern bright spaces on…
Architecture can be brutal. A couple of weeks ago, I had a remarkable opportunity to deep into the bowels of two fabulous buildings – the Haywood Galley and the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre. I’ve been to both many times before, for concerts and exhibitions. Both are now closed for refurbishment – and…
I’ve have been wondering… How do you get to be called ‘the great’? Presumably, someone else has to give you the title because taking it for yourself would be a bit vain (although I’ll bet there were a few who did). I understand Alexander the Great – after all, he conquered most of the known world.…
My mother used to say that the very first word I spoke wasn’t Mummy or Daddy – it was horsey. I am entirely willing to believe her. Like most young girls, I loved horses. But in my case, it was a love affair I never grew out of. Circumstances over the years changed the nature…
It had to happen one day. Regular readers of this blog know I am a bit of a history buff and spend as much time as I can climbing over ruined castles, old abbeys, stone age forts and the like wherever I find them. I have always said I am not a big fan of…