RattleBag and Rhubarb

Comfort Food and Comfort Books

A recent NYTimes Cooking newsletter from Melissa Clark drew my attention to the article about Raghavan Iyer by Kim Severson …

2 years ago

The Rise and Fall of Spurious George

Two centuries after William Hogarth published his engravings of the decline and fall of Tom Rakewell, Rebecca West wrote a…

2 years ago

Classic Crime: Murder, she laughed

Felled by the dreaded lurgy in early January I was sidelined from my usual reading routine. It’s hard to concentrate…

2 years ago

Affirmation Generation

Vimeo has taken down the video "Affirmation Generation" but you can see it here. Take the time to watch this…

2 years ago

Literal Nazis and the Retro-transing of History

 Researching Marienbad and the Savoy led me to Erika Mann and all the gossip, scandal, politics, and drama of her…

2 years ago

The Aspirational Dottiness of Old Age

Here's a treat for those who relish fiction with off-the-wall cognitive mayhem - The Hearing Trumpet Suddenly it seemed as…

2 years ago

Our Flag Stays Red – Communists and Snore Detectives at the Savoy

In Our Flag Stays Red (1948) Phil Piratin - the Communist Party MP for Mile End - wrote an account…

2 years ago

Water and Light Part Two: C19th Danish Art

The third destination of our Met Museum art extravaganza was Beyond the Light - Identity and Place in Nineteenth-Century Danish…

2 years ago

Water and Light

A wander crosstown to the Met with a destination. Or rather three. The first - Water Memories - explores water’s significance…

2 years ago

Reasons To Be Cheerful

So much gloom, doom, and disaster that it's important to find counterbalances. Here are a few recent bright spots. Glasgow…

2 years ago