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...
by Valerie | Dec 5, 2018 | art, Fashion, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, travel
Fingers poised, I am about to type out a lecture on the period of art styled Mannerism, but am uncertain where to start. Yes, Florence again, not in the workshops that forged the talent of young Michelangelo and Raphael in the late 1400s, but in the Florentine court...
by Valerie | Sep 20, 2018 | art, Fashion, General interest, history, Italy, museums, travel
One of the most powerful of many memorable sequences in the Visconti film of Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) is when the hero and heroine – Tancredi and Angelica (acted by Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale) – run, frolicking, through the attic rooms of an immense and...
by Valerie | Jul 14, 2017 | art, Fashion, General interest, history, people, travel
‘Is Iran a police state?’ I asked Ali, our excellent guide. He hesitated. The organisers of our tour of Iran asked us not to name anyone we would like to meet there as we are requested to do on our visa application. Any meetings should be arranged through our guide....
by Valerie | Jul 4, 2017 | art, Fashion, Fifties, General interest, history, museums, people, travel
Tehran, we were warned, would be characterless. It was. There was no heart to the town which seemed like a lot of villages which had spread and amalgamated into an amorphous mass. I remember endless streets that all looked the same as we went from one museum to...
by Valerie | Feb 19, 2014 | art, book reviews, Fashion, General interest, history, people, reading groups, theatre, writing a novel
All writers must be thrilled when a reader points out a nuance or theme or anything positive that they haven’t noticed. In a world of knee-jerk criticism, this gives a sharp sensation of pleasure. It’s what Linda Bamber must be feeling with any feedback for her...
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