Category High Street Blues
Fifty Shards: Confirming England’s fascination with the weather
Day Thirty-three and Thirty-four: See peoples? This is what you call weather. And the proof of it is in the photo. A morning of crystal clarity then a torrent of wind and rain. Temperature: And yesterday, proof it is autumn with an unpleasant wind chill factor thrown in for good measure. Get those scarves out! Greyscale: Charmingly silver then non-existent, the Shard become Tardis-like […]
My museum is better than your museum (plus two shards)
You may have heard of Dennis Severs’ House on Folgate Street in Spitalfields. It’s the small museum that makes a virtue of its crumbly interior, where rooms have been unrenovated and returned to their eighteenth century mood and your tour is provided by candlelight and the insidious smells of the past. It is a fascinating […]
Fifty Shards: Day 29 and an oppressive grey plume hangs over London
See what I mean? Day Twenty-nine: If you examine closer, you’ll note a brown hue. Fifty Shades of Brown? Hmmm, not really. Temperature: However, as anyone in London will tell you, it has cleared to become a sparkling day of 26c. Well at least that’s what it said in the forecast (the Yahoo one on the iPhone, […]
A London shop devoted to umbrellas and sticks
Umbrellas. Now there’s a commercial opportunity. Unsurprisingly, London has a very well established shop devoted to this much maligned accessory. James Smith and Sons has been around for some time. 1830 to be exact. They sell umbrellas and that other curiosity, the stick. We’re talking walking sticks here. Once, they were all the rage. Now […]
Fifty Shards: Like a scalding shaving blade, the Shard on Day 24
Day Twenty-four: Tis a warm one, so you’ve been warned! 30c. Don’t go outside. You might faint! You might die! Temperature: In some places like India, Southern USA and Egypt – in fact, in too many places to mention here – 30c is seen as a blessed relief. Greyscale: Glistening, sharp, watery-eyed newsreader grey. In E L James’s words: Babe, […]
Fifty Shards: Day 23. A bit of Clive James…
Clive James was on the box last night. Charmingly witty with his usual enthusiasm for word-play, I find it hard to believe he has leukaemia even though his face is drawn from it. Recently, he mentioned that he is too ill to travel back to his homeland, and it seems underneath the wit is a forlornness contemplating mortality. […]
Fifty Shards: On Day 22, a morning as it should be
Day Twenty-two: Perhaps because it is July 1 and the beginning of a new month, we are granted the epitome of a summer morning. Clear and fresh, it makes you want to get up and go to work. Temperature: Conforming to my eulogy. Greyscale: Well, maybe this blog needs to change to Fifty Shades of Blue. In E […]
Foyles foils bookshop decline (plus a Shard)
Shops come and go. They either die a cruel death or move across the road a la any glamour fashion shop on Bond Street. In the last week it has been Foyles turn, a shop in the deeply unfashionable business of book selling. Foyles proves you can still sell a book in a shop. We all […]
Fifty Shards, Day 19: A Summer Shard.
Day Nineteen: June 13, 2014. 8.15am. London in summer. It does sound like an oxymoron particularly for visiting friends. Summer? In London? But ask any Londoner and they’ll say a good summer’s day in the capital is like nowhere else on earth. Except Rio. But maybe we shouldn’t talk about Rio. Temperature: It has been a week […]
A tale of a puppet reunited… and a Shard
An unexpected delight of Florence was the surprise party held for the return of its prodigal son… Day Eighteen: May 29, 2014. 8.15am. Back in London, this is the view that a certain puppet sees most mornings. Temperature: Bloody sultry! Greyscale: Very! In E L James’s words: Clammy, perhaps wet.
Puppetman by Daniel Coupe 