Christmas in Royston a century ago was not Christmas, unless you’d heard the shrieks of the man stuck up the chimney in the town hall…and that man wasn’t Santa! Walter Mitchell, the town’s assistant pharmacist, was entertaining the locals again. Find out more about the amazing Prof. Mitchell (‘champion smile producer of the twentieth century’)… Continue reading The Ghost of Royston’s Christmas Past
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We are all Butlers
I caught up with Kazuo Ishiguro in 1995. Six years earlier The Remains of the Day had won the Booker prize and it was two years since Merchant Ivory’s adaptation had hit the big screen. He had just published his fourth book, The Unconsoled – a book which could never live up to the literary… Continue reading We are all Butlers
Mr Punch’s dog
I tracked down Toby (a riotous East End paper named after Punch’s dog that got the authorities’ rag and landed its editor in prison)…a paper slated as ‘a disreputable and pestilential print’ and ‘a scandal to the country’ by the judge who would later try Oscar Wilde. Discover the extraordinary married couple behind the publication… Continue reading Mr Punch’s dog
Dr Who’s sea legs
Book talk: what an 18th century novel about flying to the moon really has to say.
Building a Cathedral
Book talk: Graham Palmer chats to best-selling author Jo Browning Wroe
Revolting Royston (2): Royston’s Bastille
Britain is close to bankruptcy and the government is looking to make cuts. A riot threatens when the ‘Reverend Agitator’ FH Maberly calls a mass meeting in 1836 to protest against Royston’s new Poor Law Workhouse. City centres around Britain have gone up in flames. Will Royston be next?
The Reverend Agitator
I’m really looking forward to sharing how Royston reacted to the New Poor Law in my talk next week at Royston Museum…
EH Whydale and Royston’s lost paintings
Picture this…. It’s 1937. The far-right is on the rise throughout Europe. In Paris, Picasso is painting a dying horse in his anti-war masterpiece Guernica, while Orwell is visiting the front-line of the Spanish Civil War taking notes. When he returns to his cottage (in the tiny Hertfordshire village of Wallington), Orwell will work these notes up… Continue reading EH Whydale and Royston’s lost paintings
William Blake’s Universe
William Blake’s artwork never makes it onto shortbread tins. It is far too disturbing for that. His colours are a psychedelic nightmare. The Fitzwilliam Museum’s exhibition tries to ask, ‘Why?’ Who was this man who challenged artistic orthodoxy and why did he frame himself as Joseph of Arimathea at a time when the whole world… Continue reading William Blake’s Universe
Play’s the thing
The Director? That phrase alone conjures images of a guy with a megaphone shouting at actors. Think again. For Robin Belfield, it’s all about being the audience. Recently, I tracked him down to talk about his work with the RSC, National Theatre and his latest project with Shakespeare’s Globe. You can find the interview on… Continue reading Play’s the thing