by Valerie | Jun 12, 2019 | 1950s, art, book reviews, childhood, Fifties, General interest, history, Italy, people, poetry, reading groups, travel, writing a novel
Soon tennis will start at Wimbledon, rain permitting! The world-famous championships are about to begin in the prosperous, leafy suburb of London. It’s the season of long, languid summer evenings around the midsummer day on the 21 June, the longest day in the northern... by Valerie | Jun 5, 2019 | General interest, history, people, travel
This is the start of a poem by my grandson which he waved in the air outside Buckingham Palace when Trump arrived there last Monday. Ten next month, he has started his political as well as poetical journey early! I was three times his age when I marched along... by Valerie | May 22, 2019 | General interest, travel
In a few days’ time, I shall be diving back into the mind of a seventeen-year-old face to face with an artist in a small ancient town that crouches on a hill less than an hour away from Madrid. In the 12th and 13th centuries, it sheltered dissidents and scholars. It... by Valerie | May 15, 2019 | General interest
May is the month of bank holidays, Afer taking advantage recently of one to visit friends on the outskirts of London, we had a strangely reassuring encounter. It was a lovely spring day: clear sunlight, trees clad in fresh green leaves dappled in sunlight and... by Valerie | May 8, 2019 | art, Fashion, General interest, history
An image to hold in the palm of your hand or hang in a jewelled case on a chain around your neck, just hidden under clothes but close to the heart – your symbol of deepfelt emotion. The miniature paintings of Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver in Elizabethan England...
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