by Valerie | Mar 1, 2017 | General interest, history, people, travel, Uncategorized
Some years ago I was enjoying a dinner party in New York when our host raised a glass to ‘the Red, White and Blue’. Bewildered I raised my glass with the words ‘bleu, blanc, rouge’ echoing in my mind. At a pause in the conversation I asked who or what we were drinking... by Valerie | Feb 22, 2017 | childhood, General interest, history, people
The TV crew is outside the Minster and I am tempted to watch it – a sort of distant bystander – rather than concentrate on the structure of my next book. Others gather on the pavement hoping to glimpse a famous actor, bewigged and booted, before he strides through the... by Valerie | Feb 9, 2017 | General interest, history, people, poetry, theatre
Next to the Globe theatre in London on the Southbank is the Sam Wannamaker Theatre, or, as I feel it to be, a theatre such as Inigo Jones would have designed in the early decades of the 17th century. Wooden seats, walnut backdrop and candles burning, then as now.... by Valerie | Feb 1, 2017 | General interest, Uncategorized
All my friends seem to be saying it. Where does one begin? One moment I feel like finishing off a particular task. That might make me feel better, but it takes longer than I thought and I haven’t been able to start clambering through another pile of papers as planned.... by Valerie | Jan 25, 2017 | General interest, Uncategorized
It all started two years ago when the bilingual 5-year-old son of a friend pointed to my nose and said, ‘There is sangue.’ I thought he wanted to know what sangue meant, so I said, ‘blood’.‘Yes, blood,’ the small child persisted, so I went to look at myself in a...
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