Evelyn (Judy Dench), our resident blogger (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) When first seen: Maggie Smith as Mrs Donnelly making a scene in a UK hospital room Dear friends and readers, For a few minutes afterward, this movie helps make you be glad to be alive, with time yet to retrieve, to compensate, to use as [...]
Archive for the ‘Travel Writing’ Category
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Blogging Away, One Day at a Time
Posted in 20th century culture, Costume drama, film studies, Movies, Travel Writing, tagged Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, classic movies, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, penelope wilton, Tom Wilkinson on May 6, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Museum of Modern Art: another way to house ourselves & get to one another
Posted in 20th century culture, Autobiographical, modern art, museums, politics, Travel Writing, tagged 21st century lifestyle, cars, travel, vacation on April 3, 2012 | 5 Comments »
March daffodils to the side of my house (close up) Dear friends and readers, Yesterday I had to expend a goodly sum to a group of workers (acting with alacrity to obey their boss), the man who owns Residential Lawn Management, to cut my grass, ground down the hedge in front of my house, hand-cut [...]
Books in art and science, Sharp (2): the role of covers, periodicals (Romantic era); Mudie’s non-English and Murray’s travel books
Posted in 20th century culture, Austen, biography, book history, book illustration, conference report, Conferences, French novels, gothic, Regency Romantic literature, Travel Writing, women's art, tagged John Murray, julia kavanagh, monthly periodicals, Mudies Library on July 21, 2011 | 5 Comments »
The picture gracing the cover of Restless Spirits: Ghost Stories by American Women Writers, 1872-1926, edd. Catherine Lundie Dear friends and readers, I continue my tales of my time at this summer’s Sharp conference. I here cover three sessions, two on the first Friday afternoon and the first of four all day Saturday. My topics [...]
Two day New York interlude: windows & walks
Posted in 20th century culture, Autobiographical, Seasonal, Travel Writing, visual art, tagged Central Park, Frederick Wisemen on May 30, 2011 | 10 Comments »
Leon Cogniet (1794-1880), The Artist in His Room at the Villa Medici, Rome (1817) Dear friends and readers, The Admiral (aka Jim) and I returned this afternoon from a two day interlude in NYC of nearly non-stop delightful (really) visits and talk with friends, a birthday party, walking in Manhattan and Central Park (whenever it [...]
Foremother poet: Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)
Posted in 18th century, Austen, feminism, Foremother Poetry, Poetry, Travel Writing, women's poetry, women's art, tagged Francis Wilson, Grasmere Journals, John Constable, Passionate Sisterhood, Sara Coleridge on May 21, 2011 | 3 Comments »
John Constable (1776-1837), Gillingham Bridge, Dorsetshire (1823) Dear friends and readers, I had planned to write this week’s foremother poet blog on Dorothy Wordsworth after reading a poem to her by Carol Ann Duffy this week. Just as I was set to write it, I began looking for a few pictures and found that as [...]
Foremother Poet: Helen Hunt Jackson (1830?-1885)
Posted in 19th century poetry, 20th century culture, feminism, Foremother Poetry, novels of sensibility, Poetry, political novels/films, Travel Writing, women's novels, women's poetry, women's art, womens' films, tagged Helen Hunt Jackson, Loretta young, Maria Fiske, Ramona on March 26, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Helen Hunt Jackson at her writing desk in Colorado Springs Dear friends and readers, This week’s foremother poet blog is on Helen Hunt Jackson now known among those who read and care about social justice as a strong fighter for Native American rights, a progressive social activist, travel writer, poet of lovely lyrical poems of [...]
Canaletto’s world on a brisk sunny day; Or, the Venetian art marketplace
Posted in 18th century, painting, Travel Writing, visual art, tagged Guardi on March 14, 2011 | 19 Comments »
Canaletto, San Christoforo, San Michele and Marano from the Fuondamenta Nuove, about 1722 Dear friends and readers, Jim, Izzy and I set forth on the first of our planned day trips on a brisk sunny day — around 10 this morning. We went into DC, walked about, visited the National Gallery, two special exhibits and [...]
Foremother Poet: Francis Power Cobbe (1822-1904)
Posted in feminism, Foremother Poetry, Travel Writing, Trollope, women's memoirs, women's poetry, women's art, tagged foremother poet, Francis Power Cobb, male violence on February 27, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Francis Power Cobbe, her own illustration for a travel piece, “A Lady’s Ride through Palestine” Dear friends and readers, This is another in my series of foremother poet blogs — whence the label “poet” when it should really be writer and splendid human being, for if the world were filled with people like Cobbe what [...]
Foremother Poet: Judith Wright (1915-2000)
Posted in feminism, Foremother Poetry, Travel Writing, Trollope, women's poetry, women's art, tagged Judith Wright on February 19, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Judith Wright when young Dear friends and readers, A second foremother poet posting (the first was Anne Vavasour). I love Australian literature, art, history, the landscape, and am persuaded the angle on reality that Wright’s background gave her is part of why I love her poetry. And the tone of her mind. Her typical imagery. [...]
Winston Graham’s Poldark’s Cornwall: 3 types of historical fiction
Posted in 18th century, Autobiographical, Costume drama, historical fiction, men's memoirs, Poldark, political novels/films, Travel Writing, Winston Graham, tagged Cornwall, Poldark, travel book on September 19, 2010 | 14 Comments »
Godolphin House, Cornwall, used as Trenwith, the Poldark family home (1975-76 Poldark mini-series) Dear friends and readers, Tonight I had a familiar experience: the Admiral and I were on the way to a opera in DC, and as soon as we got into the car, and upon opening my latest Poldark novel, Black Moon (the [...]
