I’m just back from Copenhagen, a city that I’ve been to four times now in as many years. No complaints about that – it’s a city of great charm and calm. It’s a place through which to drift on an even tenor. The streets are intriguing, the shops (frequently with basement-level windows) are inviting, theRead More
This is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen, and I’m trying to work out why. It’s the stadium built for the Olympic Games of 1936, held in Berlin, a city that I visited for the first time a couple of weeks ago. The 1936 Games were of course Hitler’s Games, engineered asRead More
I’m back from a few days in Paris, where (amongst other things) I visited two of the city’s cemeteries. I hadn’t planned to visit cemeteries on this short break, but the page on Père Lachaise in the city guide fell open in front of me and told me I should go, and then Montparnasse cemeteryRead More
120. I remember directions marked out in pink wherever you went. 121. I remember Nicola Adams’ smile. 122. I remember the radio-controlled cars which were used to retrieve javelins and shots. 123. I remember the Olympic posters designed by various celebrated artists, and how poor most of them were, showing how very little said artistsRead More
Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking beside you … T.S. Eliot, ‘The Waste Land’ The Third Man (1949) is one of the most satisfying films ever made.Read More