Everything else at the National Gallery was, if I am honest, a warm-up. I had come for one painter. Van Gogh has pulled at me for years, and with a trip to …
London
I have stayed at Sea Containers in London more than once, and I have eaten breakfast there more times than that. It has never disappointed. Of everything I have written about this …
- London
The Lewis Chessmen: A Grumpy Medieval Court at the British Museum
by Bubblyby Bubbly 8 min readI have stood in front of the Lewis Chessmen more than once, and not one of them has ever looked pleased to see me. They are small, carved from walrus ivory, more …
- London
The Post-Impressionists at the National Gallery: A Word Invented in London
by Bubblyby Bubbly 8 min readThe word post-Impressionism was invented in London, by an Englishman, about a group of French painters who never once used it themselves. In November 1910 the critic Roger Fry took an open …
I have a habit when I travel. Whatever European city I am in, I look for the Roman layer underneath it. Sometimes it is obvious. More often it is a fragment of …
I have been a Gordon Ramsay fan for years, and I know the reputation: loud, sweary, hard on people. That is only half of him, and it is not the half I …