Jane Austen, A Beloved Friend in Chawton
by Helen Palmer It took a life-threatening illness and months of enforced convalescence to finally arrive at the home of a much loved friend. I…
Tag: travel cameras and writer’s gifts
Of Dreams and Dolls: American Girls and the Spirit of Exploration
by Katy Kelleher The first American Girl Dolls were released in 1986 by Pleasant Company, which had yet to be acquired by mega-manufacturer Mattel. I…
Apocalypse Now, A Film History & the Sacrificial Water Buffalo
by Simon Glassock Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is one of the most famous of all Hollywood films. It is a transposition of Joseph Conrad’s…
Colin McPhee’s Musical Life in Bali
by Kerry Lee In 1929, the expats were sitting at the outdoor cafes along the Montparnasse, quaffing espresso by day and absinth by night. I…
A Brazilian Afternoon in Vinicius’ Itapua
by Eleanor Stanford Someone has removed Vinicius’ spectacles. He sits in the praca (the plaza), staring blindly out at the ocean, perhaps pondering a poem…
Karl Marx’s Revolutionary Brussels
by Steven Hermans I walk the cold deserted streets of Brussels on the 1st of November. The sun rises in front of me over a…
Anne Frank’s Lasting Literary Impact
by Hannah May If I just think of how we live here, I usually come to the conclusion that it is a paradise compared with…
Jim Morrison & Lipstick Kisses at Oscar Wilde’s Pere-Lachaise
by Kevin E.G. Perry “They say, Lady Hunstanton, that when good Americans die they go to Paris.” ~ Oscar Wilde, “A Woman of No Importance” Oscar…
Origins of Crime & Justice in James Patterson’s Washington DC
by David Silon While walking around our nation’s capital, I often wondered about its story. When I ask the average American what comes to mind…
Death & Life on the Nile, Agatha Christie’s Egypt
by Veronica Hackethal “Gosh, a funeral procession,” exclaims a fellow passenger, with typical English understatement. He points dockside where a wedding procession had passed minutes…