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Dolce Vita Confidential /Shaun Levy

I very much enjoyed this affectionately appreciation of Cinecitta, the great rise and contribution to world cinema by Italy, which is also known as “Hollywood on the Tiber.” I am a huge fan of Italian cinema and the book is a worthy addition to my film library. Yet it is more than just a film [...]

April 8, 2018 // 0 Comments

Then and now – is it really progress?

The subject of how society evolves over time is a complicated thing, especially when you’re an oldie. Not least because you can remember the days when things were different and you just got on with it. Particularly when it comes to social attitudes and humour, because they will always only be [...]

April 2, 2018 // 0 Comments

It ain’t like it used t’be (and that’s both good and bad)

For my sins, last night I had spent just over £20 to Sky Box Office for the privilege of watching Anthony Joshua beat Joseph Parker ‘live’ from the Principality Stadium over twelve rounds on points last night and thereby become holder of three (or is it four?) world heavyweight championship [...]

April 1, 2018 // 0 Comments

Riviera art and a mysterious Dutchman

One of the great attractions of the Riviera is the quality and exhibition of its art. Not that many great painters were actually born there but many were drawn by its light, lifestyle and opulence to resettle: Miro, Picasso, Matisse, Chagall all moved here. One of the most interesting stories is [...]

March 30, 2018 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard

Like Bob, I always look forward to the annual Rust pilgrimage to Nice with girlie expectation. We might even start another great Rust debate as to the merits or otherwise of visiting the same place. On one hand, we all know Nice well as this is our third time but on the other as life draws on [...]

March 22, 2018 // 0 Comments

TEFAF Maasricht

The great and the the good of the art world have  beeb gathering in the pretty Dutch town of Maastricht, once the battleground for the ancient Tory Brexiteers – for TEFAF, an art convention of dealers. One of the talking points will be the indictment of Jonathan Green of the Green art [...]

March 20, 2018 // 0 Comments

Pull the other one

Today I know that I’m going to seem like a curmudgeonly old non-PC misogynist by offering my views on this subject. However, I know that this won’t bother my female fellow columnists unduly because all those that I’ve spoken to have told me so. Here’s my text for [...]

March 19, 2018 // 0 Comments

Rendezvous Russian Tea Rooms/ Paul Willetts

In  a recent post I referred to Mers el Kebir as an understated event in Winston Churchill’s Premiership and today in reviewing the above I shall be referring to another equally important but uncovered one. Archibald ‘Jock’ Ramsay MP This book is a true and gripping account of [...]

March 11, 2018 // 0 Comments

The art of keeping up and failing

It ill bodes anyone who ventures to predict the future – I’ll put my hand up straight away to having totally failed to foresee the way things might go when mobile phones and the internet first appeared in the 1970s/1980s – so you’ll excuse me for taking a deep breath before beginning [...]

March 9, 2018 // 0 Comments

Around the sale rooms

Looking at the catalogue of forthcoming auctions of modern British art at Christie’s I was struck how artists can rise and fall in appeal and value. Johnny Minton in the 50s was regarded the equal of his friend Francis Bacon. I saw and liked his work exhibited last year at that excellent [...]

March 6, 2018 // 0 Comments

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