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I’ve been on holiday in Berlin for a week, and I’m catching up with my 20 books of summer posts before I head off again for a few nights: these were books 9, 10, 11 and 12 of my 20, all by UK authors. I’ve gone off-grid a bit from my original list of 20 books.

Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood.

I felt I needed to read this 1930s, Berlin-set novel, given our last-minute trip to Berlin. It’s a pacy, often funny novel (“I must have been already drunk when I arrived at the Troika, because I remember getting a shock when I looked into the cloakroom mirror and found that I was wearing a false nose”), which takes a darker and more sinister turn. The implacable William Bradshaw, who is loosely based on the author himself (who lived in the city as an English teacher and sometime…

In the first article of this series of two, I traced the career and paintings of Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910) up to the dawn of the twentieth century, by which time he was living in the small village of Saint-Clair, not far from his close friend Paul Signac, on the French Mediterranean coast. In 1903, he travelled with his wife to the city of Venice, where he painted extensively.

Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910), Night of the Festival of the Redeemer (Venice) (1903), watercolour over pencil on white wove paper, 14 x 24.3 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Wikimedia Commons.

One of Cross’s surviving watercolours from this first visit shows the Night of the Festival of the Redeemer (1903). This is the Festa del Redentore, held on the day of the Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer, to give thanks for the delivery of the city from the plague of…

Earlier this month, I made a quick sketch of Bastion House, from London Wall.

Here’s a map:

The architect was Philip Powell of Powell and Moya. The building was completed in 1976. I like this building. It reminds me of the “obelisk” in the film “2001 – A Space Odessey”.

The City of London have the idea that they are going to demolish this building, and the Museum of London next to it, and build three large office blocks: bigger and wider than the existing buildings, providing some 750sq ft of commercial office space.

This mystifies many of us, as we witness empty office blocks all around this location. It also angers us, as such huge buildings will take sun from the residential estate to the North. There seems to be a case for pausing…

, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; I mean, if you and I were in a line moving towards what we knew were gas chambers, I’d rather have a go at taking one of the guards with me; but they [the Jews] were always submissive.

–Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990)

Who was Roald Dahl?

On the chance that you are unfamiliar with Roald Dahl, the world famous children’s author, he is best known for ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, a novel adapted to film twice: in 1971(with Gene Wilder) and then again in 2005(with Jonny Depp).

Not only was Roald Dahl prolific, but many of his books became wildly successful and remain so to this day. You may have heard of such titles as ‘The BFG’, ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’…

Thanks for Visiting 🙂

~Sunnyside