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Death of a satirist
News of the death of Simon Hoggart a couple of weeks ago caused widespread dismay. For so many years he skewered politicians with wit and ridicule in his parliamentary sketches and on the radio it seems hardly possible that it’s…
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Whistler’s long voyage: Rotherhithe to Battersea
‘Whistler and the Thames’, which comes to an end at the Dulwich Picture Gallery on 12 January, is the best sort of exhibition: one that places right in front of your retina an artist previously spotted only with peripheral vision.…
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Llais tawel Dafydd Pritchard
Aderyn prin yw llyfr newydd gan y Prifardd Dafydd John Pritchard. Felly dylid croesawu ei gasgliad diweddaraf o gerddi, Lôn Fain (Barddas, 2013), yn frwd iawn. Ddaw ystyr llythrennol ‘Lôn Fain’ ddim yn eglur inni tan y tudalen olaf, ond…
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John Fahey, American primitive?
Like many teenagers of the late 1960s I was first awakened to what would become my most treasured music by the late John Peel. His weekly programme Top Gear on Radio One was unmissable. It was almost the only place…
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The Library of Birmingham
The city of Birmingham is famous for reinventing itself. No sooner are buildings thrown up than plans are hatched to raze them and start again. A good case is the central library. The ‘old’ library, an inverted concrete pyramid of…
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Wales Coast Path, day 7: Barry from Rhoose
It’s a dry and sunny morning after torrential rain in Swansea. C and I are drawn back irresistibly to the famous ‘Rhoose Point Transport Interchange Car Park’, this time with H as our companion, for a gentle amble east to…
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Wales Coast Path, day 8: Rhoose from St Donats
I’m back with C and J in the King George V Field, St Donats. The morning’s not as bright as the weather forecast promised, but there’s no wind, and it’s not cold. So off we march down the field to…