I'm thrilled to have been awarded a micro-commission as part of Wandsworth Council's year as London Borough of Culture. Alongside a programme of large scale events and festivals, the Council has put in place a light-touch application process for Wandsworth artists to apply for a small grant to create new work on the theme of …
Tag: weather
a month away, & looking ahead
It's a week now since I got back from a month away in Australia, visiting family in Melbourne. I'm finally over the jet lag, and getting back into the swing of London life. I was very glad that Nick could come with me on this trip, my first "home" in nearly 3 years. It makes …
Hell of a Summer
For several weeks now, I've had a particular song going round in my head. It's by The Triffids, one of my favourite ever bands, and appropriately, the song is Hell of a Summer. You can listen to it here on YouTube, and maybe listen to the rest of their classic album Treeless Plain. It's certainly …
posters and coasters
Biblical weather last night as we ventured far north, deep into zone 3 and along the Seven Sisters Road, to the private view of an exhibition of posters at G511ERY. A fabulously unlikely location for a gallery, next to a kebab shop in Tottenham, but just the spot to showcase some maverick printmaking. The work on …
Souvenirs de France
Paris 5th-8th July Hot and sunny throughout. We're based in the 10th arrondissement. It's lively and vibrant, especially along the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin, which are thronged with Parisians picnicking, rendez-vousing, imbibing and conversing late into the evening. I feel at home. It seems that Parisians have been starved of good weather as much …
An Aldeburgh Diary
Friday 7th June For some time , I've wanted to visit Aldeburgh and see the places where Benjamin Britten lived and worked, to wander along the beach and immerse myself in the landscape that inspired him. This weekend, at last, we're going, coinciding with the opening of the 66th Aldeburgh Music Festival, which was originally …
spring fever
At last, at long bloody last, spring seems to have arrived. I'm wearing footless tights, for only the second time this year. I've opened the bedroom window - not wide, but enough for a gentle waft of London air and London sounds to permeate the flat. The heating's been off for a couple of weeks, …
muses aplenty
Thursday 4th April. Outside, the bitter easterly wind continued to savage awnings, umbrellas and most people's spirits. We'd had snow flurries and sleet all day, and London's pavements spattered a thin muddy muck on everyone's boots. In the downstairs bar of Cotton's Caribbean Restaurant in Exmouth Market, nearly 30 women writers, plus friends and supporters, …
London latte
Friday morning. I'm in the city for a course, and I'm early. Summer's ending. It's a bright, fresh morning and I'm in fine spirits, for no particular reason other than the weather, and that's a good feeling. I have a quarter of an hour before I'm due in the world of work, and I'm going …
Saturday swim
Up at 6:30. Straight into swimming togs. Cycle shirt and shorts on top. Pannier packed the night before with towel, goggles etc. Kiss my sleepy, non-swimming beloved goodbye, and then I'm out, on my bike, into the fine, bright morning, cycling south along not quite empty streets, across Clapham Common where a slight haze shimmers …
Hilaire 