Bastard Covid-19’s prohibition of our habitual touchy-feely ways – on a sliding scale from jovial shoulder slaps with a favourite Co-op assistant (we’re pretty tight with the Co-op crew round our way) to warm embraces for family and friends – has reduced our emotional world to include only that which exists between our four brick…
Category: Art
What exactly does one read during a pandemic?!
I had hoped to restore a bit of humour to Bronte’s Page Turners, given my recent focus on subjects as heartening as depression and immortality, but then BOOM: along comes a pandemic like Covid-19, and like most people I am navigating an ever-present readiness to sob and howl What. The. Actual. Fudge. Yesterday evening, as…
Bilder des Todes (The Dance of Death) by Hans Holbein the Younger (1538)
Ah, Hallowe’en: the one time of the year we can legitimately spend a shedload of hard-earned moula on sweets and plastic crap in Poundland in the collective effort to convince ourselves that we are totally fine with the fact we will one day all die. Bilder Des Todes is Hans Holbein’s take on our ancestors’…
Celebrating International Women’s Day 2018!
Following our posts to celebrate International Women’s Day in 2016 and 2017, we’re back again for #IWD2018 with a bounty of books to explore woman’s place in the world. Set in Rosenau, an isolated alpine farming community in Austria, Homestead by Rosina Lippi begins with a mysterious love letter – its intended recipient potentially being…
Books ‘N’ Babies!
Upon discovering I was pregnant this time last year, my ponder of the forthcoming journey dwelled on two things: 1) ‘Wow I’m up the duff and gonna be a muvver!’ Who signed that off?’ etc and 2) ‘Finally, some time to deal with Bertie aka my TBR book case, so monstrous it inspired a rap,…
Cities of the World by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg (1617)
Cities of the World has been described as ‘Google Earth’s ancestor’. Focusing on Europe but including important cities and landmarks in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the maps in this beautiful book were originally created and published as six volumes of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum between 1572 and 1617. Taschen’s volume includes 564 original engravings (mostly…
Mother: Portraits by 40 Great Artists by Juliet Heslewood
This week’s Random Book of the Week is a quick post as I shortly have to make the trek from Sarf to Norf London in order to worship at the altar of The Woman Who Gave Me Life. Yes folks, it’s Mothering Sunday, that day of the year when Clintons et al make a lot…
Art and Feminism, edited by Helena Reckitt with a survey by Peggy Phelan
Happy International Women’s Day! Given that yesterday’s IWD post was rather bleak, I thought today I’d cheer us up (sort of…) with some feminist art. Art and Feminism is published by the excellent Phaidon and provides an overview of female artists who have explored feminist themes in their art. As well as an introduction to…
26 Treasures: 4 national museums, 104 objects, 62 words each
I found 26 Treasures in the National Gallery New Year sale. The fact it only cost me One English Pound instead of £15.99 was a significant factor in my purchase: it could facilitate the illusion of my intellectualism (essential in masking the reality that a substantial proportion of my time is spent reading the gossip…
The Penguin 60s Classics Boxed Set (1995)
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Penguin books – you remember, Sir Allen Lane’s ‘ag’ at failing to find a decent book to purchase for his onward journey at Exeter train station prompting him to launch high-brow paperbacks for the masses, rather than simply frowning meaningfully at the WH Smith lady like…
Les Tres Riches Heures Du Duc De Berry (1416)
This week’s Random Book of the Week was a beautiful bargain find at one of the legendary basement sales at Any Amount of Books in Charing Cross Road. These basement sales tend to turn London bibliophiles into madder versions of their already mad bibliophile selves. I once got chatting to a very old man who,…
The Secret Museum by Molly Oldfield
First off, I must give a North London Shout Out to my fellow nerd Laura Blower (aka Blow Town – we like to give each other potential rap names, should the need for a swift career change ever arise), who has form for generously giving me nerd-tastic books. For my last birthday Laura bought me the excellent A…
Brontë's Page Turners 