William Gibson’s new book Zero History came out a few days ago. It’s a taut thriller about information and the power of design, and fetishises a designer who uses deadstock fabric, of a quality impossible to find new, to make clothing with shapes inspired by the golden age of workwear. The designer doesn’t release in [...]
Entries Tagged as 'culture'
Writing East Anglia
March 5th, 2010 No Comments
If you enjoy this blog, you may well be interested in a Writing East Anglia workshop at Writers’ Centre Norwich, with Jeremy Page, an author steeped in the local landscape. He writes sad, soulful books about loss, which seems to be the only appropriate form for the hardness of the fens. But perhaps other, more [...]
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Cambridge Espionage
January 24th, 2010 1 Comment
Cambridge University is famously associated with a certain spying scandal, politely referred to as the ‘Cambridge Five’. Perhaps in acknowledgment they’re having an intriguing-looking exhibition at the library of espionage related ephemera from the last 900 years.
“A library might seem a strange place for an exhibition of secret service, given its association with guns, fast [...]
Tags: cambridge · cambridge university · ephemera · espionage · museums
Cambridge Festival of Ideas
October 21st, 2009 No Comments
Just a quick note to say that the Cambridge Festival of Ideas starts today. Their programme is hugely wide, from a plant orchestra at the Botanic Gardens to curators at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology sharing their favourite pieces from the museum, to an Intaglio printmaking workshop, plus talks, performances, hands on workshops. It’s [...]
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Akenfield
July 9th, 2009 No Comments
It’s forty years away since the publication of Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, but it still has an unmistakeable air of truth about it. For the uninitiated, it is a documentary book by Ronald Blythe who describes it as “this statement about living in an East Anglian village at the beginning of the second [...]
Tags: akenfield · books about east anglia · documentary · east anglia · farming · history · oral history · suffolk · village life
Christchurch Mansion
June 24th, 2009 No Comments
The children of Ipswich are lucky indeed. Not only do they have an estimable town museum, they also have Christchurch Mansion, where they can go and develop their taste by looking at beautiful domestic objects from centuries past, in a beautiful old house surrounded by parkland for running around in afterwards.
The interiors are from every [...]
Tags: christchurch mansion · furniture · ipswich · museum
Ipswich Museum
June 8th, 2009 4 Comments
Inching into Ipswich through an endless traffic jam on a wet Wednesday, I never expected to fall in love with it. Too many ugly 1980s buildings, depressing 1970s bungalows and grey drizzle turning everything it touched sticky and sad.
And yet… that’s just the face it shows to casual visitors. As soon as I parked the [...]
Tags: animal bones · ethnography · fish skull · fossils · giant stuffed woolly mammoth · ipswich museum · stuffed animals · victorian curiosities
Courtney Pine in Norwich
May 12th, 2009 No Comments
I notice there are still tickets left for Courtney Pine’s Jazz Warriors – Afropeans gig at the Theatre Royal, Norwich tomorrow night.
The Afropeans project was originally conceived to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Slave Trade Act, and a new lineup of great soloists has been put together for this gig. In [...]
Tags: afropeans · cortney pine · jazz · jazz warriors · music · norwich · norwich and norfolk festival · theatre royal
Norfolk Open Studios
May 11th, 2009 No Comments
All over Norfolk artists are cleaning up their studios and finishing work in preparation for Norfolk Open Studios which runs 16 – 31st May. More than 250 artists all across the county are taking part, from Downham Market in the West to Great Yarmouth in the East and Wells to Diss on the north south [...]
Tags: art · art shopping · artists · ceramics · craft · downham market · norfolk open studios · norwich · painting · photography · sculpture · studio visits