Basia Korzeniowska My mother went to a professional photographer, Julia Bennett Studios in Oxford Street, to have this portrait taken. I presume it was for a passport. I have been trying to work out when it was taken, because she never actually looked like that. The dress is polyester, so it must have been taken in the […]Read Post ›
A Spectator competition – the idea was to put the words which come at the ends of the line into a meaningful sonnet. Obviously it didn’t win! But I found the draft today so I thought I’d type it up before I threw the scrap of paper away after so many years. ***** I think […]Read Post ›
Written in April 2015 So much love So many children with doting parents So many children wanting to please So many teachers eager to show their charges in the best light. So many little princes and princesses anxious, arrogant, afraid of disappointment; spitting images of their parents […]Read Post ›
When people show you their holiday snaps ( thank heaven the era of the slide show is over) you know that you are in for a series of monuments, castles, rooftop views, your friends emulating celebrities and royalties at attractions like the Taj Mahal, etc etc. I know. I’ve done it too. How to make […]Read Post ›
I am not in Fulham Broadway right now. Nor likely to be for a very long time. But for the last year or so this was the image I saw twice a day every weekday on my way to and from what turned out to be my very last full time job! It wasn’t […]Read Post ›
I first went to Spain December 1970. I was seventeen, shy, tongue-tied to all intents and purposes, especially in Spanish, callow, and totally unused to alcohol. The family I stayed with were inordinately rich, very kind and hospitable and, I thought, extremely old. Now, when I think about it, they were probably in their late […]Read Post ›
March 1974. When I was invited to go for a weekend to Benidorm by my Uncle Dick – it was a works outing – I jumped at the chance. His wife, my Aunt Alice, his sister -in- law, my mother, and her husband Zbyszek, were coming too. This was going to be my first holiday […]Read Post ›
Walls with skirts. Little additions to cover their joins with the floor. Modesty? Practicality? Custom? Not in every country I am sure. One of my earliest encounters with this phenomenon was when I was very small. My father, still a student at the time, was an almost perfect househusband. He couldn’t cook or diy but […]Read Post ›
TTo continue on a nautical theme for a moment. I came home today in a bit of a rush as usual, and ravenous as usual, and with not a lot to eat in the house, also as usual. So choosing rapidly between a tub of cottage cheese and a slice of toast with Philadelphia I […]Read Post ›
THE HQS WELLINGTON I always think I know London quite well and central London especially so, but I am often caught out. So when I received an invitation from The Apostleship of the Sea to come and have drinks on board this vessel, moored on Victoria embankment, in exchange for listening to their report, I thought […]Read Post ›
Life Through Basia's Eyes 