Faces, Marks and Masks: Exploring a theme that I find in Somerled’s art as shared on Twitter (@Sumarlidh) This is not the blog I intended but is, I think all I can produce at the moment. I’m challenged. I may have to come back to this art with the intention next time of not ‘petering … More Faces, Marks and Masks: Rambling round a theme that I find in Somerled’s art as shared on Twitter (@Sumarlidh)

How to tell the story of Anti-Semitism and Intellectuals who Challenge it: Reflecting on reading Michael Rosen’s (2017) The Disappearance of Émile Zola: Love, Literature and the Dreyfus Case London, Faber & Faber. This is a book with far larger themes than can be imagined before we not only read it but reflect on it.  … More How to tell the story of Anti-Semitism and Intellectuals who Challenge it: Reflecting on reading Michael Rosen’s (2017) ‘The Disappearance of Émile Zola: Love, Literature and the Dreyfus Case’ London, Faber & Faber.

English Orientalism and interiors: The uses of enchantment I had the good fortune yesterday to visit again, with a friend, The Enchanted Interior at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle for a curator’s tour of the exhibition. This isn’t a review of the tour but a kind of side interest partly inspired by that guided tour and … More English Orientalism and interiors: The uses of enchantment

In lieu of a review of Roger Robinson (2019) A Portable Paradise Leeds, Peepal Tree Press Ltd. I read this following a recommendation by a fellow tweeter and after it had won the T.S. Eliot Prize for 2019. I had neglected it because I was so in love with the work at Jay Bernard. However, … More In lieu of a review of Roger Robinson (2019) ‘A Portable Paradise’ Leeds, Peepal Tree Press Ltd.

Reflecting on Ben Ashcroft’s (2013) Fifty-One Moves Hook, Hampshire, Waterside Press I ordered and read this book because I had been impressed by tweets by its author about his remarkable struggle against addiction, crime and overwhelming feelings of rejection. I enjoyed it for several more reasons. Of course the main story is one of recovery, … More Reflecting on Ben Ashcroft’s (2013) ‘Fifty-One Moves’ Hook, Hampshire, Waterside Press

Stigma is inevitable in Personality Disorder (PD) Diagnoses: A Very Personal View from a Non-Professional (retired mental health & learning disability social worker, former carer and long-term user of depression services). The personality disorders are a collection of psychiatric categories each describing common clusters of ‘symptoms’. It is important to keep the term ‘symptoms in … More Stigma is inevitable in Personality Disorder (PD) Diagnoses: A Very Personal View from a retired mental health & learning disability social worker, former carer and long-term user of depression services.

Andrew McMillan makes a poem about the origin of everything and a wonderful art exhibition: Alan Davie & David Hockney: Early Works at The Hepworth Wakefield to the 29th. Transferring to Towner Art Gallery. For the poet’s own take see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T22jaegj8GQ If you watch Andrew McMillan speaking about the genesis of his poem, line (at … More Andrew McMillan makes a poem about the origin of everything and a wonderful art exhibition: ‘Alan Davie & David Hockney: Early Works’ at The Hepworth Wakefield

Van Gogh in the Round: Reflection : https://www.vangoghexpo.co.uk/york/ to book and more information. I saw this tonight at about 4 p.m. Sitting in a deck chair in the nave of the old church, a looped presentation occurs all round you. It’s even on the floor beneath you and all created by projected moving light. There … More Van Gogh in the Round: Reflection : https://www.vangoghexpo.co.uk/york/ to book and more information.

Reflecting on Edward Hopper Edited by Carter E. Foster (2009) New York, Rizzoli International Publications Limited. My local bookshop in Bishop Auckland (Bondgate Books, Fore Bondgate) recently purchased a collectors library containing a number of very beautiful art books. This week I purchased this lovely catalogue with scholarly essays on Edward Hopper. I’ve spent some … More Reflecting on ‘Edward Hopper’ Edited by Carter E. Foster (2009) New York, Rizzoli International Publications Limited.

Tosh very much alive: Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow to Aug 14th 2018 Monday, 2 Jul 2018, 17:36Visible to anyone in the world- Edited by Steve Bamlett, Monday, 2 Jul 2018, 17:48 Tosh very much alive: Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow You only have to the 14th August to see this fateful exhibition. It is fateful because … More Tosh very much alive: Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow to Aug 14th 2018

Reflecting on Surge by Jay Bernard (2019) London, Vintage Penguin.  Links are seminal. I first tried to read Jay Bernard when a first version of Surge was published in 2016 in Beacon of Hope. I failed the test, feeling that this poetry depended too much on performance art for me to understand and love it, … More Reflecting on ‘Surge’ by Jay Bernard (2019) London, Vintage Penguin. Links are seminal.

‘A scribbled form, drawn with a pen upon a parchment’: Reflecting on King John by William Shakespeare prior to seeing the current RSC production as screened to cinemas.   The historical King John ruled England from 1199 to the succession of his son, Henry III  in 1216 after John’s death from, it is believed dysentery. … More ‘A scribbled form, drawn with a pen upon a parchment’: Reflecting on King John by William Shakespeare prior to seeing the current RSC production screened to cinemas.