How on earth do you track 150 paintings, sculptures, furniture and curiosities which were dispersed 176 years ago after the great “sale of the century?” You hire art super-sleuth Silvia Davoli, that’s how. And you know Horace Walpole would be tickled pink (or probably red, a colour he used lavishly and liberally) to see his…
CULTUREDKIDS #31
Welcome to our October edition of Cultured Kids, co-hosted with the superlatively cultured Catherine at Catherine’s Cultural Wednesdays. Cultured Kids is a virtual space where we share articles on all things cultural every two weeks, for kids around the world. Check the articles below for fun and informative posts from other bloggers on theatre, museums,…
Review: Porgy and Bess at the ENO
London, why on earth did it take your opera houses so long to stage Porgy and Bess? Thank goodness the English National Opera has corrected this cultural misdemeanour by staging the opera’s first major outing since the 1980s. It’s a sensory feast all round, perfect for opera lovers and novices as well as audiences of…
Oxford Lieder Festival 2018
It was a full house on Friday night at the opening of the Oxford Lieder Festival, the UK’s largest art song festival. And to mark a nation gone bonkers with Brexit, the organisers chose an apt theme: The Grand Tour, A European Journey in Song. Talk about sticking a chorus of fingers up at the…
Review: othellomacbeth at Lyric Hammersmith
Yes, you read that title correctly. I’ve just been to see a mash-up of two of Shakespeare’s plays into one and its name is othellomacbeth. When you think about it, Othello and Macbeth have at their core similar DNA: power, greed and green-eyed monsters capable of turning gullible men into murderous villains. And it’s not…
Londoness Loves October 2018
It’s a big birthday for me this month, so I’m taking a deep breath as I head into a very busy celebratory October. It’s always been my favourite month (how surprising, I hear you say?) but it’s more about the smells, the colours and the cosiness of a month where the leaves turn from burnt…
My favourite London restaurants
Want to eat like a Londoner? Here are some of my favourite restaurants in London, the ones where you might see me hanging out. There’s everything from Michelin star restaurants to London historical haunts, tasty fish and chips joints and even an Indian cafe where you can eat famous bhajias. If you’re visiting London and…
The Last Tsar: Blood and Revolution – Science Museum
A new exhibition at the Science Museum in London originated a few years ago, when a curator discovered a crate buried in the museum’s vast archive. Inside, she found 22 photograph albums of the Russian Imperial family, taken between 1908 and 1916, and so began the journey of The Last Tsar: Blood and Revolution. Marking 100…
START Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery
It’s time to rev those arty engines and get over to the START Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery. Now in its fifth year, the annual art market is promoting 50 artists from over 25 countries, providing a unique platform for emerging young artists and galleries. Launched in 2014, START was the brainchild of super-collectors…
Shaken and Stirred – London’s Fastest Speedboat
I’d like to say this is going to be a cultural post, but in all honesty, it’s going to have some adrenaline thrown in with a dash of James Bond. Having said that, you get to see London’s most iconic sights with me, something I don’t talk about very often, as I prefer to showcase…