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A spring morning. Six paces from the car and we’re standing, four of us, on the beach at Oxwich. Calm sea, a light airflow from the south east, and, best of all, sun – a star banished from sight during…
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The destruction of culture: a plea to Swansea Council
What makes a city a city? I mean, in the sense of a particular, distinctive city. Its people, certainly, its geography, landscape and architecture, also its economy and politics. But what really sets a city apart from its neighbours is…
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Brexit: a Martian sends a postcard home
My dearest brothers and sisters, It is two years since you did me the honour of despatching me on a voyage across the solar seas to inspect what the Britons call their ‘mother of parliaments’. I must own that, reviewing…
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Capel-y-ffin: tro ar fyd David Jones
Mae’n drueni mawr na fydd yr arddangosfa David Jones: vision and memory, sydd newydd ddod i ben yn Pallant House, Chichester, yn dod yma i Gymru, cartref ysbrydol ac ysbrydoliaeth yr artist ac awdur o Lundain. Fel cytunodd pob un…
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Two Americans in Porto
What comes to mind when you think of a contemporary art gallery? Probably, big empty spaces, clean geometric vistas, minimal signing, white walls. The Museo de Serralves in Porto, Portugal’s main centre for modern art, meets all those expectations, and…
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August Macke waters modern art
The current exhibition at the Royal Academy is all about gardens. The RA receives no state subsidy and relies on a regular series of blockbusters to bring in the crowds. This one, entitled Painting the modern garden, certainly fits the bill. …
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Kyffin Williams the writer
The text of the 8th Kyffin Williams Annual Lecture, given at Highgate School, London on 1 February 2016. First, I’d like to thank David Smith and Highgate School for inviting me to give this year’s Kyffin Williams Lecture. It’s very…
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Back to Briggflats
My favourite place in England is the hamlet of Brigflatts, a few miles from Sedbergh. The river Rawthey flows nearby, and the few houses cluster around the Friends Meeting House, one of the oldest Quaker meeting houses in the country…
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Blues recordings: gwallter’s top 10
Richard ‘Rabbit’ Brown, James Alley blues, 1927 James Alley is in New Orleans. Like Louis Armstrong Brown was a native of the Storyville district of that city. He only recorded six songs, but this one, recorded in his home…
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Drinking coffee in the desert with Charles Doughty
On 10 November 1876, having taught himself Arabic, a 31 year old Englishmen called Charles Montagu Doughty set off from Damascus to travel alone across the Empty Quarter of the Arabian peninsula via Meda’in Saleh to join the Haj, the…