by Valerie | Nov 29, 2017 | General interest, history, people, poetry, travel
I look out on the grass in front of Beverley Minster and marvel at how green it is. In all these years I have never seen it such a rich shade of green. Have I changed, or has it? Perhaps I am influenced by a book I’m reading set in China after the Communist revolution... by Valerie | Nov 22, 2017 | art, General interest, history, museums, people, travel
In the Château de Chantilly there is a gem of a work of art. It’s an illuminated manuscript referred to as the ‘rich hours of the Duke of Berry’ – Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. It is so fragile that it is rarely on display, but on the one occasion that I did... by Valerie | Nov 15, 2017 | art, General interest, history, Italy, people, travel
Autumn is particularly lovely in Tuscany with the red pomegranates – often with an open gash – set in bushes turning bright yellow. No olives to speak of this year because of the relentless dry spring and summer. In May the sun dried the small, unexciting flowers off... by Valerie | Nov 9, 2017 | General interest, history, Italy, people, poetry, travel
No peace for a woman lying on the beach reading a book. Young men were circling. One asked why I was reading Dante’s Divina Commedia. I explained, haltingly, that I was trying to learn Italian and, in reply to one of them holding out his hand, I insisted that I would... by Valerie | Oct 11, 2017 | 1950s, childhood, Fifties, General interest, history, poetry, reading groups, travel
Twenty-five years after coming to studynot far away at York University and publishing her bestseller, the Wild Swan was back again, standing in the pulpit of Beverley Minster to promote the same book in the Beverley Literature Festival. A quarter of a century has... by Valerie | Oct 5, 2017 | art, General interest, history, museums, people, travel, Uncategorized
Last Monday, after seeing a Canadian friend who has been living in London for 25 years and a young Italian post-graduate medical student, I wandered through Hyde Park to pause beside Prince Albert. He was seated high above me under a golden canopy, but we were...
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