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Today we’re joined by M. and his binoculars. Again we start from the Bosherston car park, though this time, thanks to M., we escape having to pay the National Trust’s hefty parking fee. Down through the lily ponds again, but…
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Wales Coast Path, day 31: Bosherston to Castlemartin
Manorbier, according to Giraldus Cambrensis, is the pleasantest place in the whole of Wales. He was not impartial, since he was born there in the Castle, but on a warm sunny morning in September it’s hard to disagree. A cottage…
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Wales Coast Path, day 15: Oxwich from Rhossili
Rhossili on a Wednesday morning in early September. The car park’s mostly empty. At the National Trust canopy no one’s around to give the hard sell on membership. A cool wind’s blowing from an unfamiliar angle, north-west, but there’s no…
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Shandy Hall and the Auxerre moment
Shandy Hall is a house almost as eccentric as the mind of its once owner, Laurence Sterne, vicar of Coxwold and author of The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy. One of the highlights of the summer was a tour…
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Horse, man, dog: two Nottingham paintings
In the Long Gallery of the Castle Museum and Art Gallery in Nottingham are two oil paintings that seem to speak to each other on the wall they share. They look similar – both use the formula horse-man-dog – but…
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Down among the artistocrats
Chatsworth, when I was an innocent boy, and later when an innocent parent, meant a fun day out. A chance to gawp at the baroque luxuries, scamper on the lawns and play games in the playground. At the time we…
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A day at the cricket
Friday morning. I get to St Helen’s at about ten past eleven. Play has already started: Glamorgan v Gloucestershire, County Championship, Division 2. Day two of a four day game. It’s £15 to get in. I say to the ticket…
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Wales Coast Path, day 17: Llangennith from Llanrhidian
In Llanrhidian we park the car and poke our noses into the Welcome to Town. It’s been overhauled and reopened since we were last here and presents itself as a ‘pub and dining rooms’. The brand advice must have consisted…
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August Kleinzahler v Google: knowledge in excess
For my money the liveliest American poet at the present is August Kleinzahler. I first came across him in his collection Sleeping it off in Rapid City (2008), a title that says a lot about his themes and his expression.…
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Wales Coast Path, day 16: Rhossili to Llangennith
In summer the Worm, the Bay and its end-of-the-earth aura draw hundreds down Gower’s narrow roads to Rhossili – us included today. In the crowded car park we avoid eye contact with the National Trust’s recruitment agents and head north…