by Valerie | Jun 13, 2018 | childhood, General interest, history, museums, people, theatre, travel
If we define a city as a town with a cathedral, then Lichfield is a city. Its grubby cathedral standing proud in its walled precinct would ‘lose its face’, I was told, if cleaned because the local reddish stone crumbles under jets of water. Inside there was a buzz of...
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 | Jul 7, 2015 | childhood, General interest, history, museums, people, theatre
The only time I’ve seen Michael Wood was when he came to give a lecture in Hull University’s Middleton Hall and the projector could only project stamp sized images on to the massive screen in front of an eager audience. He was, understandably, furious, stamping his...
by Valerie | May 11, 2014 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, theatre
There was talk about Viterbo being the capital of ‘Tuscia’. I wasn’t quite sure which area it referred to. Today was the day we would venture out into this area, moving east to explore the hilltop towns of Lugnano and Amelia, better known to some as a girl’s name, now...
by Valerie | Apr 20, 2014 | art, General interest, history, museums, people, theatre, travel
We couldn’t complain that on our last day in Jordan we experienced a sand and rain storm. In these strange and ancient lands, stony plains spread out east of Amman, yet by the Dead Sea, at Wadi Rum and Petra there were rocky mountains and hills, all of sandstone...
by Valerie | Mar 27, 2014 | art, General interest, history, museums, people, theatre, travel
I keep on thinking of these tombs as temples – to the Afterworld. Innumerable, all carved into the soft sandstone striated with different hues, or sandy as one expects with sandstone, or the rose-red stone Petra is famous for. The variety never ended. Variety in the...
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