Arts

Earth/John Boyne

This is not your normal football novel as the subject – Evan Keogh- is gay and does not like football but instead wants to become a painter. The story is that his teammate Robbie Wolverton is accused of raping a girl which Evan filmed. Much of the 168 pages of this novella is taken up with [...]

May 8, 2024 // 0 Comments

Close … but no cigar

The early May Bank Holiday ends today following a weekend boasting the Semi-Finals of European club rugby’s premier competition the Investec Cup and – after two thrilling and entertaining games – for both of the English Premiership’s leading attacking outfits taking part [...]

May 6, 2024 // 0 Comments

Operation Petticoat/Guns of Navarone

No Bank Holiday is complete without a classic war film and on Friday I watched two. I was new to Operation Petticoat (1959) directed by Blake Edwards. Edwards is best known for the Pink Panther movies but, aside from comedy, he also directed the hard-headed film on alcoholism Days of Wine and Roses [...]

May 5, 2024 // 0 Comments

Fiorentina file: Fiorentina 3 Club Brugge 2

Art business took me to West Sussex. An art collector in Petworth may be interested in selling a Giorgio di Chirico. Collectors always say they are not interested in selling but, if the price is right … The tactic is not to disclose the net price. An auction house deducts a premium, VAT and [...]

May 4, 2024 // 0 Comments

State of Emergency/Dominic Sandbrook

This is an account of the years of Edward Heath as Prime Minister (1970-74). It was a tawdry time of rock bottom industrial relations, high inflation, the ill-advised Barber “boom”, soccer hooliganism and extreme violence within the Province (“The Troubles”) and IRA outrages on the [...]

April 30, 2024 // 0 Comments

A Saturday afternoon watching rugby

Over several years now this organ has covered the Northern Hemisphere version of the sport of rugby union in some depth, covering everything from specific matches and trends in the financial fortunes and playing tactics of elite professional clubs to its ongoing inherent dangers and medical issues. [...]

April 28, 2024 // 0 Comments

Singer Sargent Course

Yesterday I attended the first edition of a course on the painter John Singer Sargent. It soon became clear that I had not read the course materials carefully enough – it was actually a drawing course based on the technique and style of Singer Sargent. It’s been many years since I picked up [...]

April 24, 2024 // 0 Comments

Sussex win & top League Two

After two draws and yesterday’s win by four wickets against Gloucestershire, Sussex now top the second division. After coach Paul Farbrace went on record saying that we will never witness again the golden period of the noughties when Sussex won 3 Championship titles and the Cheltenham & [...]

April 23, 2024 // 0 Comments

Sir Neville Marriner (1924-2017)

This April 15th would have been the centenary of the birth of conductor Sir Neville Marriner, the founder of the Academy of St Martin-in-the Fields, an eminent conductor. The BBC celebrated this centenary with a series of his recordings and I watched and listened to Marriner conduct his Academy [...]

April 17, 2024 // 0 Comments

Titanic

Having listened to all of the episodes on ‘The Rest is History’ podcast on the Titanic, which took the listener through its building for White Star lines in the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding yards in Belfast to its sinking when it hit a iceberg in April 1912, I then decided to watch [...]

April 9, 2024 // 0 Comments

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ITV COVERAGE OF CHELTENHAM

March 14, 2026 // 0 Comments

I am in the camp of watching on tv rather than attending for the 3 Cs: cost , convenience and comfort. With the cost of travelling and attending Cheltenham and last [...]
Max Schmelling/ The Good German

March 4, 2026 // 0 Comments

In the unlikely event that I would be asked to nominate a Great Life on Matthew Parris ‘ show my choice would be the Black Uhlan Max Schmelling. In the 1930s thee [...]
The Tanner Report : Fulham 2 spurs 1

March 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

Prior to Fulham ‘s comfortable win over Spurs (2-1) I watched the big match Revisited featuring Chelsea 1 Arsenal 2 i guess in the early 70s It would be foolish to [...]
The Six Nations

February 24, 2026 // 0 Comments

The Six Nations continues to throw up surprises. England could not bounce back against Ireland , a resurgent Wales gave Scotland à close game with the Millennium Stadium [...]
Brentford 0 Brighton 2

February 23, 2026 // 0 Comments

The heat is off Fabian Hürzeler with Brighton ‘s 1st win in 13 games. Club owner Tony Bloom was not at the G Tech stadium due to a long planned family engagement but had [...]