I just found this book on my shelf after many years and was enchanted all over again by the sweetness of the cover. The illustrator is Margery Gill. The back cover is no less delightful. I received this book for Christmas when I was ten. I remember choosing it with the woman who gave it […]Read Post ›
Thirty years ago my stepfather died very suddenly. He was sixty one. 14 years later my mother followed him. In this photo they are in front of Sheffield City Hall just after my graduation in 1976. He is forty five. My mother is 47. He is the slimmest he’s ever been. That day was one […]Read Post ›
When I was eighteen I went to Poland for six weeks. It was a great turning point in my life, as up till then I had been very shy, very nervous, lacking in confidence and with very few independent skills. I was clever and well read, but that was about it. I left school after […]Read Post ›
Yesterday we had to go to South Kensington because my husband needed to have his eyes tested. It was his first train trip (my second) since lockdown started, so a very exciting if somewhat nervous undertaking. As it happened, everything went very smoothly – very few people anywhere, and most of those wearing masks. Uncomfortable, […]Read Post ›
https://www.architecture.com/image-library/RIBApix/gallery-product/poster/wayang-coffee-lounge-207-earls-court-road-london-by-night/posterid/RIBA3354-53.html?tab=print Wayang is a Javanese shadow puppet – but I didn’t know that till a short while ago. For me the name conjured up the idea of a lovely, very exotic for its time, restaurant in Earl’s Court Road. When I was at primary school and a little later, my mother worked round the corner […]Read Post ›
For Y (G E) It is a long time since I actually listened to the programme, but I believe the guest is limited to eight records. I don’t know if I’ll be able to be so succinct bur we shall see. First of all I would have to take with me the double LP of […]Read Post ›
Where have they gone? Why have they disappeared? Ever since I was very small I have loved museums. When I was tiny and my parents were still together, my father would take me out every Saturday morning and we would go shopping first to the North End road, go, to the launderette, watch the boxing […]Read Post ›
(for AL) My first concept of the word island was when I was very small, (four in fact) and we were going on a family holiday to the Isle of Wight. That was very exciting for many reasons, some of which I shall write about another time, but one in particular: there were […]Read Post ›
Not so my mother’s mother, of whom I began to be aware about the time when I was still at infant school. She too was plump. Impressively so. And shades of dark beauty still hung in her black eyes and her dyed hair. One day she appeared at the school gate with a large […]Read Post ›
Life Through Basia's Eyes 