Category: Travel & Arts
Dinners in Paris, and a long day for the fishmongers
June 27, 2019
First night nerves We like to mark our evening of arrival in Paris with dinner at La Fontaine de Mars. You know you’re in Paris from the moment you step through the door. This time I’d left it too late to make a reservation, so we gave Le Bistrot d’Eléonore et Maxence a call. […]
Night at the Museum
June 14, 2019
After an interesting encounter last year with Napoleon the Strategist at the Musée de l’Armée in Paris, it seemed rude to miss an opportunity of making closer acquaintance. Talent or ambition – which is more important in the making of a genius? I wrote about it here: https://wp.me/p7AW4i-kE The museum was open free of charge […]
Hockney & Van Gogh, or ‘The Vince and Dave Show’, plus All the Rembrandts
April 30, 2019
To give the exhibition its official title: “Hockney – Van Gogh, The Joy of Nature”. It opens with David Hockney on film, talking to camera about his own work, Van Gogh, and the exhibition. “It’s a good title – better than ‘The Vince & Dave Show’,” he says with a mischievous twinkle. Wearing a […]
Best gig of the year, and it was only February!
March 1, 2019
I’m often asked when to open a bottle of wine that’s been gathering dust in somebody’s rack – “will it still be any good?” My advice? “Open it without expectations, and hope to be pleasantly surprised”. Sometimes I take a similar approach when the programme from Ronnie Scott’s appears in my inbox. Pick a […]
Sargent in Stockholm
February 8, 2019
I’ve always enjoyed grand portraits by the great artists: Van Dyck, Velazquez, Gainsborough, you know the list. I came late to John Singer Sargent. I first encountered his work at an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2015. Two years later I was enchanted by the intimacy of his watercolours at the Dulwich Picture […]
Swedish Food, Part Two: my quest for a meatball
January 24, 2019
First, a waterborne Smörgåsbord on the Steamship Stockholm. Invited to the city of Stockholm for a birthday celebration, we were instructed by our generous hosts to be ready to board ship at 11.30 on Sunday for a prompt departure at midday. The captain, they told us, would not wait for latecomers. The […]
Swedish food, Part One: “what have the Swedes ever done for us?”
January 24, 2019
In her Reith Lecture in 2018, Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan said this about the Swedish people: “Think of the Swedes” “I mean we think of the Swedes now today as making expeditions to Ikea, assembling furniture quietly, not getting cross at it. We think of them going to the woods and picking berries. I mean […]
A taste for Nordic Noir in Stockholm
January 17, 2019
I’ve read the novels of Henning Mankell; on TV I’ve seen both the Swedish version, and Kenneth Branagh’s interpretation of the world-weary detective Kurt Wallander. (Perhaps he was just weary of the insistent ringtone on his mobile that goes off at the most inopportune moments). I was an avid follower of ‘Arne […]
“You either see it or you don’t”. The Dennis Severs House
January 12, 2019
Where do you go as a treat for a nephew whose 11th birthday is a week before Christmas? We took him to the 18th century. On Sunday 23rd December we travelled by London Overground to Shoreditch High Street. As we walked towards our destination, we passed the strangely rather wonderful shop window of Gardner’s, […]
My round-up of 2018
December 28, 2018
2018 has been a year that required urgent distractions from the shambles that passed for political debate in Westminster. Fortunately it’s been a good year for adventures: exhibitions, travel, theatre, food & drink. Here are just a few of my personal highlights: Theatre – behind the scenes at The Bridge In February I wrote […]