Wynn Wheldon
Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Tuesday, 5 January 2021
Monday, 4 January 2021
From'Autumn Journal' by Louis MacNeice
Louis MacNeice takes on a persona in the first part of 'Autumn Journal'.
Wednesday, 30 December 2020
Friday, 4 December 2020
Friday, 27 November 2020
Matilda Box
Searching for for my great grandmother, Matilda Box, I came across this one, whom I suppose may have been one of my 32 great great great grandparents. If so, thank you Mr Broderip
Wednesday, 18 November 2020
A MONTH IN SIENA by Hisham Matar
This is a remarkable, contemplative book. After finishing 'The Return', a book in which Matar returns to the land of his childhood, Libya, seeking, unsuccessfully, his father's fate at the hands of Gadaffi, the author goes to stay in Siena for a month to look at the city's art, which he has been longing to do for many years. He meets the city, he meets one or two of its people, and he looks at paintings for a long time. His look is not, however, strictly aesthetic, but rather that of a storyteller. His description of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's 'Madonna del latte' is a short classic of interpretation. As I read this book I found myself imagining I was inside a poem. Highly recommended.
Tuesday, 17 November 2020
Friday, 30 October 2020
Sunday, 11 October 2020
EARLY SKETCH FOR SGT PEPPER ART WORK
Saturday, 10 October 2020
HAROLD LASKI AND MUM
This is Harold Laski, the intellectual engine of the Labour Party of the 1940s and 50s, and professor of politics at the LSE, addressing the Ealing Labour League of Youth. The woman is my mother, Jacqueline Clarke, whom he addressed, in his curious accent, and much to her amusement, as 'Charwoman' of the group. He was very much taken with her conversation and invited her to the LSE where she became a secretary to, among others, Claus Moser, later a close friend, in the statistics department, while at the same time studying for entry to the school.
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Friday, 18 September 2020
Wednesday, 9 September 2020
HOOVER BUILDING
My uncle Ken worked at the Hoover factory during the last two years of the second world war. It had been given over to making armaments ('flamethrowers, that sort of thing', says Ken). It is a much admired building, rightly so, and has now been converted onto flats. I have discovered that Elvis Costello wrote a song about it.
Hoover Factory
Must have been a wonder when it was brand new
Talkin` `bout the splendor of the Hoover factory
I know that you`d agree if you had seen it too
It`s not a matter of life or death
But what is, what is?
It doesn't matter if I take another breath
Who cares? Who cares?
From Park Royal to North Acton
Past scrolls and inscriptions like those of the Egyptian age
And one of these days the Hoover factory
Is gonna be all the rage in those fashionable pages
Must have been a wonder when it was brand new
Talkin' `bout the splendor of the Hoover factory
I know that you`d agree if you had seen it too
It`s not a matter of life or death
But what is, what is?
It doesn't matter if I take another breath
Who cares? Who cares?
Tuesday, 8 September 2020
PATRICK HAMILTON'S BROTHER
From the West London Observer - Friday 18 March 1932. Brother Patrick of course survived to write Hangover Square and Gaslight. He died in 1962.