Author Archive: Andrew Green
The courage of Thomas Thrush
Less than four miles from Kilburn, my brother’s home in north Yorkshire till his death last November, is the village of Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe. It sits at the foot of the steep escarpment known as Sutton Bank, on the main road between Thirsk and Scarborough. Sutton was the home in the 1820s of a remarkable but little-known […]
‘Mwy o sgwennwrs na darllenwrs’: yr argyfwng geiriau
Yn ei nofel ddeifiol newydd Hunllef Nadolig Eben Parri mae Arwel Vittle yn anelu ei arfau dychanol at dargedau niferus yn y Gymru gyfoes. Un yw pobl sy’n ysgrifennu a chyhoeddi. Mae bron pob grŵp yn ei chael hi’n arw gan ‘Ysbryd Cymru Sydd’: cofiannau (‘gormod ohonyn nhw’), academyddion (‘digon o ddadansoddi a gor-ddadansoddi ôl-drefedigaethol […]
Farewell to Yorkshire
My parents used to tell me that when I was small I’d tell them that York Minster was, in my opinion, the best building in the world. Of course, I’d not seen much of the world then, just bits of Yorkshire and Scotland. But I didn’t let that shake my boyish confidence. After all, I […]
Myfyrdodau Mr Ebeneser Sgrwj ar ŵyl y Nadolig
Roedden ni’n trafod amser y Nadolig y dydd o’r blaen, a sut mae e wedi newid dros y blynyddoedd. Sut, er enghraifft, mae’r tymor yn dechrau – neu’n ymddangos i ddechrau – yn gynt ac yn gynt bob blwyddyn – llawer cyn diwedd mis Tachwedd. A sut mae’n llyncu mwy a mwy o amser ar […]
The other Capel-y-ffin
There were two other people, a man and his wife from Caerffili, at St Mary’s church when I visited Capel-y-ffin last week. They stood and shared my wonder at the wonky beauty of the tiny building, with its wooden bellcote, eighteenth-century pews and pulpit, and miniature staircase and gallery. As we left, we took photos […]
The bee boy
On 12 December 1775 Gilbert White, the naturalist of Selborne in Hampshire, wrote a letter to his friend Daines Barrington in which he recalled a remarkable character who had lived in the village ‘more than twenty years ago’. He doesn’t name the lad, and just refers to him as ‘an idiot boy’. What made him […]
Francis Place at Coxwold
I’ve written before about Francis Place, late seventeenth century artist and potter, and about Coxwold in north Yorkshire. This piece brings the two together. Place was a landscapist ahead of his time, in vision (he anticipated the watercolour painters of the second half of the eighteenth century) and also in method (he walked for long […]
How to make an icon
The three of us were talking, as we strolled along the front at Porthcawl the other day, about modern icons. J. had just been for a return visit to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, so the Angel of the North in Gateshead soon came up in the conversation. Antony Gormley’s great weathered steel figure is over twenty-five years old, […]
Dros sbectol Keir Starmer
Beth yw rhodd neu anrheg? Gwrthrych neu wasanaeth y mae person yn ei gynnig i rywun arall, heb dâl. Nid yn unig heb dâl, ond hefyd heb ddisgwyl tâl neu gymwynas yn y dyfodol. Beth yw anrheg, gan unigolyn neu gwmni neu grŵp arall, i wleidydd? Yn syml, y gwrthwyneb: disgwyl y rhoddwr, bron bob […]
Van Gogh up close
The National Gallery is celebrating its 200th birthday with a very special exhibition. Surprisingly, it’s the first show it’s every mounted devoted to the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh. To be able to look at them intently and quietly, in the privileged conditions of a private view, is quite an experience. The exhibition is special […]