Oliver Soden, in his Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward, relates how The Master first observed the upper classes as a young house guest at Hambleton Hall in Rutland. There, he says, Eva Astley Cooper, who fancied herself as "a kind of Ottoline Morrell of the Midlands", had established an artistic salon, and it was this that the young Coward was invited to join: Later in the war the Hall became a military hospital, and not until the 1920s would Hamilton start to welcome its more distinguished guests, by which time Noël would visit as one of London theatres brighter ...
The latest edition of Matthew Bannister's Folk on Foot podcast takes us to Bishop's Castle in the company of the celebrated accordionist John Kirkpatrick. It's a good listen, both on the appeal of the town and on the history of morris dancing. I do admire the South Shropshire practice of inventing ancient folk festivals to bring in visitors. I didn't visit Bishop's Castle when I finally made it back to Shropshire this summer, but if you click on an old blog post here you will find what is claimed to be a film of the Bishop's Castle elephant. If you've ...
The end of the year seems a good time to compose an inventory of the state of the UK's public realm after 14 years of Conservative rule. Prison estate: under-staffed, rat-infeed; so close to capacity that new government forced to release inmates to make room for more recent offenders. Courts: buildings closed or neglected, insufficient functioning toilets for jurors, insufficient barristers, long waiting-lists (up to two years or more) for trials NHS: Hospitals, crumbling buildings, long waiting-lists waiting lists GPs: insufficient; few "designated " doctors; 8am phone-call lottery. Nurses; massive shortage; too few in training (result of abandonment of bursaries.) ...
Starring the late great Timothy West and first broadcast by the BBC in 1987, this radio play purports to tell the real story behind the legend of Good King Wenceslas.
Byline Times reports that senior Conservative MPs are seeking to amend the Labour government's workers rights bill to scrap Britons' legal rights to maximum working hours, guaranteed annual leave, and holiday pay. They say that Conservative MPs on the bill's scrutiny committee, the Shadow Business Minister Greg Smith, Assistant Whips Nick Timothy and Sir Ashley Fox and Peter Bedford have sought to table amendments to Labour's Employment Rights Bill that would strip workplace protections from millions of British workers, including the complete removal of maximum working hours regulations: The rights are already a watered-down version of tougher restrictions in the ...
