Last night I was invited to attend a fellow Bath Spa MACW 's book launch. I'd really been looking forward to this as I think Lucy is a great writer, and it was a chance to see old friends and tutors again.The room upstairs at Waterstone's in Bath was stiflingly hot. Groups of people were talking … [Read more...]
Madame de Sade at Wyndham’s
As I sat down in the theatre on Friday and leafed through the programme, I realised that by the end of the 'Donmar at the West End' season we've seen all the productions. (We have tickets to see Hamlet in August). This is not intended as a boast. It's to note that so far I've only liked one of the … [Read more...]
About following me…
Some people have mentioned that they're having problems being followers. You need to enter your full e-mail address and password, but you can remain anonymous. Of course if you wish to follow me publicly, that's very nice indeed. It's great to know who's reading my blog. The more the merrier. I … [Read more...]
Chelsea Flower Show without lunch!
My friend and I have a tradition: we go to the Chelsea Flower Show, but not just for the greatest garden event of the year. My friend has a balcony and I'm really not into gardening as much as just into maintaining one. But we do like our lunch afterwards. And we are quite partial to the Pimms they … [Read more...]
The Finns and alcohol
A leading Finnish evening paper, Iltalehti, today reports that we Finns have broken another record. Not such a good one this time, since we've become the highest consumers of alcohol in the Nordic Countries. Only the Danes used to be more thirsty than us Finns, but now it's just the Irish, Czechs … [Read more...]
Doll’s House at the Donmar
'I didn't nod off once!' This was my partner's reaction to the play. Which I have to say is praise indeed. He does have a tendency to fall asleep in most unusual places, but enough of him.We go to the Donmar thanks to my London friend. We favour the Scandinavian and Russian 19th century playwrights: … [Read more...]
I’m writing again, in the sauna.
Some of you may have noticed that I've been rather busy on the blogging front recently. As well as writing here I've also commented on other people's blogs. I love receiving comments so I try to return the compliment as often as possible. And there are so many interesting blogs out there - list of … [Read more...]
The Wolseley, the Alcatraz and 25 years of marriage.
We started thinking about how to celebrate the first of our 25th wedding anniversaries about a year ago. (We have two - a story for another day) One thing I knew for a certainty, I did not want to throw a party. Selfish, I know, but I'd come to the end of my party-hosting days. This was somewhat of … [Read more...]
Digital – the new garlic bread?
It's an old joke, 'Garlic bread - it's the future.'At the London Book Fair I sat through two seminars on the future of publishing. First one was a prediction for 2020 (=digital) and the second a discussion on what's free in the new digital age and where the money is going to be made. Everyone agreed … [Read more...]
In search of Finnishness
It's the same news where ever you are...On 23th April Hufvudstadsbladet in Helsinki wrote about a social worker, who'd been charged with murder. She was still listed on the Finnish social services register while in court defending the charge. It seems bureaucrats are equally incompetent here … [Read more...]