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25.1.2012 Just back from a few days in Ramsgate - a strange place. The run-down, unloved and sad look of many UK seaside resorts, especially in rainy January. But with added benefit claimants, much evidence of recent white flight, a winning mix of architectural (seaside) styles, a big ugly ferry terminal and container dock, and a gorgeous pseudo-medieval pile (The Grange, built by Pugin) recently restored for us to stay in. (An angel from a doorway is over on the right.) All of which has very little to do with Venice, London, or Florence, but needed to be said nonetheless! 19.1.2012 I'm not sure why, but I seem to have posted quite a few photos of odd things cluttering up the South Bank Centre here over the years. These have mostly been connected to exhibitions in the Hayward Gallery, but the photo below right shows a new temporary cabin. Installed for 2012 as an Olympics tie-in, you can hire it for £120 a night, or you could have done if you'd got in before it became all booked up. It needs to have a poncey name, of course, so it's been called A Room for London. There's a lot of talk of Conrad, too, and hearts of darkness, and the spirey bit isn't just a spirey bit, it's an homage to Hawksmoor's London church towers. Sigh. But did you know that the Hayward's first exhibition was devoted to frescoes from Florence? It capitalised on the work done to the frescoes that had been damaged during the 1966 flood and the subsequent discoveries. And even I can remember going to the Hayward to see proper old art, and not just the modern tosh of recent years. 8.1.2012 Hot news for fans of the German TV adaptations of Donna Leon's Brunetti novels - MHz Networks in the US will be showing the next seven subtitled episodes on their Sunday Night International Mystery program starting next week. These follow on from the eight already shown and released last year on DVD. Episodes 10 and 11 I've already reviewed on my Brunetti TV page and I have hopes of catching the others. This year's new Brunetti novel (out in April of course) is called Beastly Things, which sounds more like a P.G. Wodehouse novel to me. 5.1.2012 Followers of the fortunes of the ruined Ospedale al Mare on the Lido in Venice might like to know that the group protesting the dereliction (of the theatre especially) now have a website teatromarinoni.org to visit and an arty video to watch (see right). They're also planning an exhibition and a book, and want to use some of my photos in both. 3.1.2012 Happy New Years all round! On the immediate horizon, reviews wise, is The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich and a new one from Marco Vichi (who provided us with one of our favourite Florence reads last year) called Death and the Olive Grove. Later in January I'm starting a course in appreciating early Italian frescoes and am staying in Pugin's house in Ramsgate. Also I've just been asked to contribute to a book about Venice film locations. So no January blues for me I'm thinking! Also... 
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My Books of 2011 |
My CDs of 2011 Figurines Figurines Phoenix Foundation Buffalo Low C'mon Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues My Morning Jacket Circuital Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys Robot Heart The Robot Heart Lanterns on the Lake Gracious Tide, Take Me Home Ghosts I've Met From a Spark Beyond the Grey Guðrið Hansdóttir American indie band domination, as usual, but with a female singer from Reykjavík. Lots of good stuff released too in the nebulous category sometimes called Home listening, new classical and/or electro-acoustic, veering into new folk. But they tend to blur into one, admittedly rather lovely, erm, blur. Ludovico Einaudi was the more mainstream fave of the year, roughly in this sphere, but Richard Skelton, Plinth, Vieo Abiungo, Field Rotation and Dakota Suite all did us proud too. |
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28.11.2011 It's been a damn lean year for good new novels set in Venice, so let's look forward to Crossing the Bridge of Sighs by Susan Ashley Michael. I'm promised a review copy and so will let you know. But I'm guessing my review won't appear until early January, so 2011 will remain a lean year regardless. And whatever did happen to The Black King, the hyped first novel by Francesco da Mosto, promised for various put-back dates in 2011, but now utterly gone from Amazon? All we seem to have is the cover and the synopsis, which hints at a somewhat overloaded plot involving Elizabethan London's favourite alchemist, Doctor Dee and much sub-Da Vinci Code 'mystery'. 23.11.2011 If you know (and love) the Victoria and Albert Museum you'll know (and love) how easy it is to get lost and discover odd and wonderful things. I went today to go see an exhibition called Venetian Visions: the art of Canaletto, Tiepolo, Carlevarijs and their contemporaries 1700 – 1800. The title is bigger than the exhibition, but it had some nice stuff - sketches by Tiepolo I liked (and I'm not a big preparatory sketch fan), some Guardi cappricios (like the one on the right), Carlivarijs topographical etchings ... all the usuals. Whilst getting lost finding the exhibition I found myself admiring decorative ironwork and then a full-sized external wooden spiral staircase and the huge wooden façade from a medieval house in London. On my way from the Venetian stuff to find ceramics I found an architecture gallery, with models and plans and drawings in drawers, and a photography gallery with greatest hits by Atget, Ansel Adams, Roger Fenton, etc. I decided that the major cause of room-finding confusion is the fact that the staircases don't all go to all floors, in fact very few do, and they're mostly closed due to building work. |
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15.11.2011 The Guildhall Art Gallery is not one of the best publicised, or most visited, galleries in London, and I suppose that those two facts are probably not unconnected. I went there today for an Atkinson Grimshaw exhibition, an exhibition that I'd only found out about reading the Burlington Magazine in the London Library last week. (My life!) Anyway, I experienced no little difficulty gaining entrance as the large Guildhall courtyard had much fencing and little and bad signage. After walking around and recovering my tracks I gave up and asked at the library reception, and was shown the way in, which involved ignoring a No Entry sign. And the reason for all this exclusion? The anti-capitalist protesters outside St Paul's had evidently tried to gain access last week. The exhibition itself was pretty without really challenging any preconceptions. 1.11.2011 Today I went to the Real Venice photography exhibition at Somerset House. I'm glad I went but wish I'd gone to it in Venice because, judging by a quick flip through the catalogue, it was a much bigger exhibition there - most of the photographers seem to have had twice as many works on show when the exhibition was at San Giorgio Maggiore. Which would've meant more photos to ogle by my faves Antonio Girbés and Matthias Schaller. The former's kaleidoscopic architectural fantasias and the latter's dark slices of shimmering palazzo interiors both made it worthwhile to go see the actual photographs. Their sweep and shimmer, respectively, have to be seen full size and well printed. Discovering these two made it well worth the visit for me. 27.10.2011 New life, new challenges. Yesterday I was only on the radio - live! Listen here 26th Oct Part One has me talking about this website from about 13 mins in. I stick around into Part Two adding 'helpful' contributions. 18.10.2011 Having the new Facebook page mentioned above is leading to some information confusion for me between what I'm putting up here, there and on my own Facebook page. It's probably to be classed as personal news but ... I'm now happily voluntarily redundant! As of last Thursday I'm no longer in paid employment and will therefore be spending more time with my sites and cats. I'll also be trying to earn a few bob with freelance writing. Life changing! Watch these spaces. 14.10.2011 Updated my Ospedale al Mare page with photos from this year's trip, like the one on the right. |
  I've been buying different flavours of these pastiglie for years on Venice trips, but who knew they'd been translated?  |
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12.10.2011 The 'do' mentioned below went well and was, we were told, very entertaining and enlightening. A last-minute surprise was provided by one of the audience identifying himself as Lido born and bred, and that he'd been born in the Lido Ospedale much written about and photographed in ruins in these parts. There's a photo to the right, of some somewhat serious preparation going on, taken by site fan Val.  9.10.2011 It's tomorrow, that book event at which I will be interviewing Robin Saikia live at the Italian Cultural Institute about his book about The Venice Lido. Click here for details and to book free tickets. 1.10.2011 Home again, and adding lots of photos and info over on my churches site. Immediately upcoming reviews here include a crime novel set in Florence called The Lost Daughter by Lucretia Grindle and an illustrated survey of Venice's many woes called Veniceland Atlantis: The Bleak Future of the World's Favourite City. 21.9.2011  |
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18.9.2011 It's been Open House weekend here in London. Yesterday we visited churches in the City - click here for some nice pics. Today we got shown around Tooting's most famous building, an architectural gem, and the only Grade 1 listed cinema in the county. It's special and it's here. We also got handed leaflets for The London Cinema Museum, which was news to us. Will investigate. 7.9.2011 I know that some people like the summer, but for me it's the autumn. The kids are back in school, the trees are going nice colours, and after all the festivals that I don't go to dominating the arts coverage, there are now articles about all the books and music and exhibitions coming soon. The books are dominated by the new Haruki Murakami which I'm SO looking forward to, but there are another several mighty tempting new reads this month alone (The Submission by Amy Waldman, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and Reamde by Neal Stephenson). Exhibitions include Leonardo at the National Gallery, Vermeer at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge and Fra Angelico in Paris. And two weeks from today - Jeff inVenice! 22.8.2011 They've arrived - the Brunetti DVDs mentioned below - and so I've been able to muchly improve the quality of the screen grabs, and will be watching and reviewing the 'new' episodes. I've also now given the series its own page. 17.8.2011 Following the release in May in the US of official DVDs of four subtitled episodes of the German adaptations of Donna Leon's Brunetti novels, those of you paying attention will have noted silence on the subject from me since. Well, this is a reflection of the silence from the company releasing them, to my polite request for review copies. But fear not, the good news is that I've got a helpful American agent who's known only, and mysteriously, as Richard from LA, to buy them for me and send them on. The company don't ship abroad, you see, although Amazon resellers do, although they only seem to have the first four on offer at the moment. Because, in further good news, four more episodes have just been released, and I'm getting all eight, so there'll be more episodes to review. 11.8.2011 Went to the Treasures of Heaven exhibition of saint-worship and reliquaries at the British Museum today. (Details here) It was enlightening on a subject rarely dealt with in any depth, and even more rarely the subject of an exhibition. For Venetophiles there was a lot about Venice's position between the West and the East making it the city through which most of the relics passed, and sometimes stayed. Also fans of Carpaccio's St Ursula cycle will be impressed to see a reliquary made to house the remains of one of the 11,000 virgins. It's the bust on the poster. The audioguide was essential too, using the screen to illustrate and deepen. Shame about getting Derek Jacobi to read it, though - the ac-tor-ly e-nun-ci-a-tion was very distracting, especially when they added churchy echo for the Bible readings. Hard to reconcile the difference between the 'real' and the fake, though, because, pardon my atheism, none of it's real. No relics of Christ's body because he was resurrected and taken to heaven? Oh, of course! And just how did they think they'd come by the Virgin's breast milk? Do virgin mothers even lactate? 1.8.2011 This site now has its own Facebook page... Friends of Fictional Cities and the Churches of Venice Click on the link above and Like the page for regular news updates. And you can post your comments too! 30.7.2011 And my new mate Robin is also selling signed copies of his Lido book online and giving 3 Euros from every sale to the Dingo cattery on the Lido. Click here to buy and donate. 18.7.2011 What are you doing in October? Yes I know it's ages yet but on the 10th I'll be 'in conversation' with Robin Saikia at the Italian Cultural Institute, helping to launch his book The Venice Lido. More details on the ICI's website. It's free, but you need to book. I expect an encouraging turnout from the Fictional Cities crowd. 11.7.2011 The awaited TV adaptation of Sarah Waters' The Night Watch is on BBC 2 tomorrow night. This is all very fast, and short. I was expecting a few Sunday evening episodes in the Autumn, but it's all over in one 90-minute film on a Summer Tuesday night, which doesn't seem right. In other London-related news: Lee Jackson, the man behind the most excellent Victorian London website and the author of some novels we really liked too, has branched out into the supplying of some juicy and odd Victoriana for your Kindle. Click here to check out his wares. 6.7.2011 Robin Saikia, the author of a fab new book about the Venice Lido, is the latest taker of the test that is The Venice Questions. And he passes! Not least by taking the ball with regard to my somewhat sedate and political Mayor for a day question and running with it in a way with which it has not hitherto been ran. 29.6.2011 Watched some of Three Men Go to Venice on TV last night, in which three grizzled old comedians travel to Venice to see and say predictable stuff and have stage-managed 'problems' and squabbles. This was the second part and they still only managed the last 15 minutes or so actually in Venice. Between them they then visited a glass blower and the fish market, learned to row standing up, and went out on the fire brigade boat. Following Jamie Oliver's foody visit to Venice one of them also went to the Convertite women's prison's weekly veg market, and got beaten to everything by one of the locals. Maybe this last visit will become a new Venice cliché to add to the tired old ones. 22.6.2011 Well, Tiziano Scarpa's Stabat Mater turned out to be no small disappointment. Its sequence of small chunks of the internal monologue of an orphan girl in the Pieta, and the effect Vivaldi's appointment has on her, just plain failed to grip or move. And then I started to read Pallas and the Centaur, the middle volume of Linda Proud's Botticelli trilogy. It deals with the lives of the circle around Lorenzo de' Medici in the aftermath of the Pazzi conspiracy, and begins with... a sequence of small chunks of the internal monologue of Angelo Poliziano's sister, Maria, who knows nothing of why she's been confined to a convent and thinks herself an orphan as the book begins. And it is everything Stabat Mater isn't - full of humanity, touching detail, and piquant historical flavour. With each volume this trilogy rises ever nearer to the top of the list of essential Florence-set fiction. 10.6.2011 Back from Florence, which more than earned its place as my second favourite city. We must and will be going more often. Expect more Florence content, beginning with a review of the fascinating new Secret Florence guide. And I'm even wondering about the wisdom of a new website: The Churches of Florence. Stop me! And in Venice news: expect a review of The Venice Lido book mentioned below, and of Tiziano Scarpa's Stabat Mater, the winner of the Premio Strega, the Italian Booker, in 2009 and out in English translation at last in August. 1.6.2011 Gone to Florence, and trip reporting here with more photos here |
  St Botolph Without Aldgate. But with an odd art installation. The black strip has silver scuffed down it, caused by dragging a deer along it, the caption said.     |
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29.5.2011 Having loved the books Secret London and Secret Venice hopes are high for the very imminent Secret Florence, and also that that nice Mr Jonglez might get a copy through my letterbox before I fly to said city next week. Another letterbox hopeful is The Venice Lido by Robin Saikia. The book is a welcome addition to the hardly groaning shelf of books on the Lido. The author has a mouth-watering website too, and has agreed to submit himself to the gruelling torture that is my Venice Questions page. And looping right back in a slightly confusing way I just watched a newish National Geographic documentary called Secrets of Florence. Call me a cultural snob if you like but it just made me appreciate much more the quality of BBC documentaries. The NG effort was all superlatives and build up, with so little analysis and depth, it was like an hour of intellectual foreplay and no real...satisfaction. All the usual topics where covered: Leonardo and Michelangelo cutting up cadavers, the Medici, Brunelleschi's dome, and Vasari's corridor. Hardly what I'd call secrets, especially if you'd ever watched any of the other documentaries about Florence. 25.5.2011 Been back from Vienna a week, and next week it's Florence. Isn't life hard? Into town today to see the Jan Gossaert exhibition at the National Gallery before it finishes next week. On the way to the tube home I nip into Hatchards to see if they have any useful new guides to Florence and who do I bump into but...Donna Leon! When I say bump into I mean she was sitting at a desk signing some books before the hoards arrived, attended by her 'people'. Plucking up nerve I approached and managed to express my admiration whilst keeping embarrassment to a minimum. I mentioned this website and she looked suitably vague, but at least she didn't say 'Oh, so you're that bastard!' That's it really, but I can report a fine firm handshake. I've had no reply from the company producing the new Brunetti DVDs I mentioned earlier in the month, so it's not looking like I'll be getting review discs, but other avenues exist. And more Donna... there are four videos on YouTube of a lengthy interview in the Toronto Public Library. The fourth part (click here) starts with a good cat story and her opinion of the German TV adaptations. I've not watched all of them yet, but she comes across as one cool (and entertaining) cookie, no question. 13.5.2011 ...but I can't resist a bit of reporting, and some photos. And, well, Vienna is not disappointing at all. The buildings are almost all worth admiring - if a little overpopulated with statues, caryatids, eagles, putti, etc - the cakes, ice cream and chocolate are most superior, and the Kunsthistorische Museum has the best selection of Venetian art outside Venice, I think. This is down to the many fine works by Titian and Veronese and the rest, but mostly because of a small room devoted to Giorgione which has three of his best, and a few of dubious attribution, but all fine and worth a look, if only to say 'Giorgione? That one? You're having me on!' Also, not being able to cross the road until the green man appears is a small price to pay for some of the cleanest, dog-crap-free, and graffiti-less streets one could wish for. An excellent urban environment all around. See some more Vienna photos here. 11.5.2011 Gone to Vienna - back in a week. I'm not going to do a trip report this time as Vienna's not one of my site cities. And I'm keen to see if I have the strength to stay in a big and fascinating city for a week and NOT write about it. Fingers crossed. (It's harder to type like that.) 5.5.2011 Donna Leon fans, especially those of you who've had their appetites whetted by my reviews here, will be pleased to learn that on the 17th of May MHz networks are to release the first four subtitled episodes of the German TV adaptations of the Brunetti novels on two DVDs. The books that these are taken from being A Venetian Reckoning (aka Death and Judgment), The Anonymous Venetian, Fatal Remedies, and A Noble Radiance. Click here for details, and to buy them. |
  The doorway on the right is where Harry Lime emerges from the shadows with the cat around his feet.  |
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30.4.2011 It has become tradition, and is a phenomenon first noticed by my mum, that whenever I get a new camera the first photos must always include at least one of St Paul's Cathedral. So having just treated myself to a Canon EOS 600D DSLR (and the equally expensive EFS 15-85 lens, photography fans) it was not surprising that a weekend trip to Borough Market should also take in the roof terrace of the new development just east of St Paul's called One New Change. I can report that it's a great new viewpoint up there, and spacious too. Photographic evidence can be found above and to the right. And the post this morning contained my first review novel from a publisher in ages - The Good Thief's Guide to Venice by Chris Ewan. Expect a review soon. 9.4.2011 I gave in and bought the new Donna Leon, with folding money! Well actually with a book token left over from xmas - thanks to C & M! In fact it wasn't so much a book token as a bookshop's gift voucher, in fact part of a voucher, and the voucher is now in the form a credit card jobbie 'charged' with cash, but, well, you know ... at least it was a real book made out of paper. 1.4.2011 More good news! You know those nasty big advert hoardings that have been blighting buildings on the Grand Canal, Piazza San Marco and the Doge's Palace for far too long? Well, their days are numbered. The new minister of culture, Giancarlo Galan (the right-wing governor of the Veneto region from 1995 to 2010 and recently minister of agriculture), has told La Nuova Venezia newspaper that the mega-ads must go. Tourists should not have to see such a spectacle, and the advertisers themselves must be finding the ads are bad publicity, he said, the money to pay for the restoration that the ads were financing will have to found in other ways.
28.3.2011 |
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10.2.2011 |
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