Through an entrance decorated with foliated faces and soot-shrouded beasts into a great room in which there is a five hundred year old whale bone, an orchestra, a composer, a chaos pendulum and several green men.
The Cul-de-Sac
The cul-de-sac, at least in the UK, is very different from the dead end street. It is a haven and closer to paradise than you would imagine.
The Cathedral Cities
Cathedrals dominate the skylines of many British cities. Their development took place over a period of over 1000 years and represent one of the most astonishing artistic and technical achievements of western Europe.
Kinder Scout
Kinder Scout, a mountain plateau in Derbyshire, UK, where, in 1932 a mass trespass drew attention to the cause of the right to roam.
Blackpool
Is there a link between anti-depressant use and deprivation?
In Search of the Green Man #1
The first in a series of occasional episodes in which I attempt to find some of this weird isles’ hidden green men.
Camberwell
Remembering an afternoon in Camberwell with artist Tom Phillips, admiring his Humament, his Cloopseend, not to mention his Hairy Balls.
Skye
The Isle of Skye, home of the Talisker whisky distillery and controversial psychiatrist and author Iain McGilchrist. Also features pithy analysis from my neighbour Lofty Hazelhurst.
Colchestopia
Imagine a perfect world. What would you do?
Harrogate and Tea
Tea drinking in Britain was once a ritual, an institution. Tea was pivotal in two British wars, one with the embryonic USA, the other, China. Today, most tea is tasteless piss – a bag of dust dipped in a mug of boiled water – although grand old tea shops, like Betty’s in Harrogate, try to maintain some standards, and hold back the rising tide: of coffee.