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This lovely church is on Queen Victoria Street, a busy thoroughfare in the City of London.

This church was first recorded in 1244, destroyed in the fire of London 1666, rebuilt by Christopher Wren in 1685-93, then destroyed again in the 1939-45 conflict, rebuilt again, and re-hallowed in 1961. It is now closed for refurbishment, and due to reopen in May 2022. When it re-opens it will become the London Headquarters of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church, this use being shared with the Anglican parish activities. I read this news on the church website.

Note the magnificent trees! These trees should feature on any London Tree Tour. I think they are larches but I am not an expert.

Yesterday, London was quiet. I sketched the church from podium level on Baynard House on…

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Slideshow best viewed At Sunnyside

Image Source:

My Lady Greensleeves by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, [Public domain], Source: Wikimedia

Thanks for Visiting 🙂

~Sunnyside

Ralph Fiennes in Four Quartets

‘In my beginning is my end. […] In my end is my beginning.’

From ‘Burnt Norton’, Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot

So begins (and ends) ‘East Coker’, the second of the four poems which make up T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, which now receives a major solo rendition in the West End, self-directed by Ralph Fiennes. Widely considered Eliot’s last great poetic work, it is a text deeply concerned with time, beyond the limitations of human perception – influenced by traditions and texts ranging from the Pre-Socratics in Ancient Greece to Hinduism, Julian of Norwich and his own ‘anglo-catholic’ beliefs (as he self-described, without the customary capitalisation, in 1929).

Eliot writes with an after-dinner wit and a focused philosophical seriousness all at once, which is dryly conveyed by Fiennes’ manner, fluctuating between offhand and earnestly supplicatory at a moment’s notice. Lines such as ‘You…

Introduction

Odette is a 1950 British war film based on the true story of Special Operations Executive French agent, Odette Sansom, living in England, who was captured by the Germans in 1943, condemned to death and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp to be executed.

However, against all odds she survived the war and testified against the prison guards at the Hamburg Ravensbrück trials. She was awarded the George Cross in 1946; the first woman ever to receive the award, and the only woman who has been awarded it while still alive.

Also known as Odette – Agent 23 or Odette – Agent S.23.

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Outline

In response to a radio broadcast request for photographs of France, mother of three Odette Sansom sends a letter to the Admiralty, but an addressing mistake brings her to the attention of the Special Operations Executive, who need French people to go back to their homeland…

Thanks for Visiting 🙂

~Sunnyside