Liverpool celebrated 2017’s outstanding nostalgia anniversary. “50 Summers of Love” celebrates the brief and localised ascendancy of the flower over the gun, the pacifying power of rock music and, er, free love. San Francisco can claim authorship, but it was some boys from Liverpool who gave us Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and All you… Continue reading
Browsing Category Travel
National Gallery of Ireland reopened and reborn
Restored and enhanced National Gallery of Ireland opens in Dublin. The Irish never need much of an excuse to celebrate. But this summer they have a deep and genuine cause for rejoicing. The restored and much-improved National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) opened in Dublin on June 15th (2017), after a six-year building programme in its historic… Continue reading →
Launching a literature festival in an English village – BeaconLit comes to Ivinghoe
Suitably dramatic skyscape over Windmill Field, close to the BeaconLit venue in Ivinghoe, Bucks. BeaconLit, our local literary festival, was launched in 2013. This year (July 1) is the fifth festival. It is now held in the dry and welcome warmth of the local school in Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire. People attend to be inspired, informed and to… Continue reading →
Corals reefs worth an annual $36 billion to tourism in peril worldwide
Climate change is causing significant damage to a multi billion dollar sector of the tourism industry, the coral reefs of 100 countries and territories, and scientists say there is only a narrowing window of opportunity in which to preserve what’s left of it. A report published in April 2017 put the value of “on-reef and… Continue reading →
Eat at Joe’s – Covent Garden’s taste of New York to live on
Joe Allen, the illustrious subterranean Covent Garden restaurant forced to close as its present location is being turned into a hotel, is to be recreated “brick by brick” in a new location just 40 yards away. Its distinctive features – brick arches, the tongue and groove wood panelling, the bar top, light fittings, posters of West End… Continue reading →
A hideaway in village Turkey
The stone table outside our little rented house in a remote coastal village in Turkey’s far south-west corner is set for breakfast. The coffee is poured, the bread fresh this morning from the local baker torn into hunks, and the bounty of the village – figs, yoghurt, honey, almonds and water melon – spread out. But… Continue reading →