Richard Bratby
@RichardBratby
Writer, critic (The Spectator, Gramophone, Bachtrack) and orchestral management survivor. Author of 'Forward' & 'Refiner's Fire' (E&T). Views my own.
The Mr. Cig cigarette mascot visiting hospital patients, 1948.
So many of us have found a lifetime of enjoyment through those books.
Most of all, thank you to the one and only Reverend Wilbert Awdry for he has brought us all together through a common love.
Most of all, thank you to the one and only Reverend Wilbert Awdry for he has brought us all together through a common love.
It was very clear to me, while still a serf, that my employer was barely prepared to cover the cost of me bringing even my professional self to work. My whole self? They couldn't have afforded it if they'd wanted - which, to be fair, they made abundantly clear that they did not.
I could not agree more with this. There’s a time and a place for everything, and we surely go to work to work.
Quite like the fact that there was a hydrogen bomb called "Bassoon Prime".
«Tewa» thermonuclear explosion, 5 Megatons, barge, Bikini Atoll, 5:46, 21 July 1956. The «Bassoon Prime» device was a «dirty» three stage design (87% fission). The crater left in the reef was 1220 m in diameter and 40 m deep.
Am guessing that those audiences rejected C19th operas with problematic storylines, & voted instead for community operas dealing with environmental and social issues relevant to their day-to-day lives. But then got overruled by Gatekeepers and made to watch Verdi anyway. Right?
This is an interesting revival of an older practice. In the interwar years, touring opera companies would regularly invite audience members to vote on the works they would like to see performed in the next season.
Torrent of profanity from @AnnetteRubery who is engrossed in a novel. "Jesus Christ!" "Bloody hell!". "Oh my God!". Since said novel is by Jane Austen, I can only conclude that one of the characters has spilled their tea.
My report on the Gwyn Williams Bursary Fund concert at St Andrew's Church, Wilmcote, on July 20 is now up on midlandsmusicreviews.co.uk
The North Transept at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral was dedicated on 24th July 1924
First edition copy of the Portland Vase, owned by Wedgwood (c. 1790-93). And some Wedgwood cameos (including ones of David Garrick and Sarah Siddons).
So much this. Dominic Sandbrook in the current Speccie.
Annette tells me that the CAPS are her "channelling A.N. Wilson".
Hawksmoor would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those pesky Neo-Palladians! Link below.👇
Hawksmoor would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those pesky Neo-Palladians! Link below.👇
We agree...
In this week's Birmingham Post - calls to reopen the 'birthplace' of Black Sabbath
Letter from Elgar, now in the possession of @spectator . Can anyone decipher his handwriting?
