For C E I do not like misery literature and would never wittingly open a book whose bleakness, grimness and oppressiveness would be sure to depress me. Luckily I did not read anything about this book before I opened it. I received it for Christmas from a very dear friend and I trusted her that […]Read Post ›
For a long time, I couldn’t find this piece of remarkable jewellery. So I was very pleased when last week it turned up well hidden and well protected in my chest of drawers. It was a great surprise many years ago, when my mother came round for our customary Sunday lunch and handed me a […]Read Post ›
This is not a picture of Mother Mary Gabriel or Reverend Mother as she was known, because I could not easily find one of her today. It is however a painting of her predecessor, the founder of the Convent, sister Mary Tredway. The habit is similar but there the resemblance ends, as M M Gabriel […]Read Post ›
For To S I’ve been sorting through a lot of things recently, boxes of photos and old papers mainly and I’ve been having a wonderful time. Yesterday I hit a certain jackpot, because I found a box of very special papers, mainly from my first year at university, 1972/3. I arrived in Sheffield in October […]Read Post ›
This lovely picture is of my grandmother, Helena Łomnicka and my aunt, Alicja, taken after they were freed from Siberia and had recovered a little in Teheran before they were sent to the Lebanon in about 1944 or 5 Today is the 10th anniversary of my aunt’s death – I have written about her before […]Read Post ›
An ambition fulfilled. Today is the fourth anniversary of Sharon’s death. The last three years there was a lovely memorial mass said for her in Westminster Cathedral – her spiritual and dramatic home. Her funeral there was the biggest production she ever put on, and it was superb. I have written about it before I […]Read Post ›
I miss teaching. I really do. I was talking yesterday to an old friend – the friendship is old, not the friend, about her desire to retire as soon as possible from the profession, and I can quite understand why she wants to. We met about 27 years ago in one of the toughest comprehensives […]Read Post ›
For everyone who has asked why I’ve not written much this year. A year of such promise. I’ve just been looking back on all the stuff I wrote about so enthusiastically at the beginning of the year. I was so keen to keep a diary of all the exciting things I would be doing on […]Read Post ›
One of my greatest regrets is the demise of the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden. Do you remember it? It was part of the Victoria and Albert Museum and a lovely place to pop into with children or without. Sometimes they would have exhibitions based on current or recent productions – at other times they […]Read Post ›
PRESENT TENSE Last Monday I decided to venture into town. Camden Town to be precise. I had recently come across the artist Andrzej Maria Borkowski and bought one of his pictures for my husband for his namesday and was intrigued when I discovered he was exhibiting his sculptures in a small gallery in North London. […]Read Post ›
