London · Monarchies · Museums · People
Look at this little black dress! The Queen wore this silk dress in mourning for her grandson Albert Victor, who died during the Russian flu pandemic in 1892. As the eldest son of Edward, Prince of Wales, Albert Victor was second in line to the throne; it was his younger
Art · London · Museums · Humour
Nicola Turner's Anatomy of Melancholy at the Royal Academy of Arts. The artist reflects on people not as individuals but as mobile systems made up of hordes of microorganisms and bacteria, in constant interaction and exchange with other organisms and with the environment. In short, this gigantic intestine
Cinema · London · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture · Society Pages
Tatler has taken note of gracefully greying celebrities, among them Princess Caroline of Hanover, Queen Letizia of Spain and, the most striking of all, Elizabeth McGovern. The steel-coloured locks swept back from the face of the 60-year-old American actress, who played the mistress of Downton Abbey, together
London · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Humour
The Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum earns £66,000–79,000 a year, which in roubles comes to 4.5–5.5 million, or 350,000–450,000 a month. When you think about it, that is not so very much for a passive-aggressive
Art · Cinema · London · People
In honour of Marc Chagall's birthday, I want to recall the appearance of his painting "The Bride" in one of the most sentimental and, incidentally, highest-grossing of English films: Roger Michell's "Notting Hill" of 1999. The Chagall reproduction in William Thacker&
Architecture · Cinema · London · Observations · Heritage
London has restored the control room of Battersea Power Station (1929-31), which once kept the lights on at Buckingham Palace and Parliament. The power station has been out of operation since 1981, and since then its premises have been partly mothballed and guarded as a piece of England'
Art · London · Museums
An Allegory with Venus and Cupid, also known as Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time. Agnolo Bronzino. Venus holds a golden apple, recalling to the viewer the legend of the Judgement of Paris, at which the goddess was declared the fairest of all the goddesses. In her other hand is an
Books · London · Humour
Britain is named after the Trojan hero Brutus, grandson of Aeneas, who was banished from Italy for the killing of his father. The goddess Diana prophesied to Brutus that he would found a new Troy, and so it came to pass: he laid out a city on the banks of
NB! · Archive · In the Press · London · Society · People · Humour
You must put up with her for another five years. The front-page headline of the Daily Mirror after Margaret Thatcher was elected for a third term as Prime Minister in 1987. The forecast, incidentally, proved wrong: the Iron Lady resigned in 1990
NB! · London · Monarchies · Pop Culture · Society Pages · Humour
Elizabeth II and Anna Wintour at London Fashion Week, 2018. Two queens, simply meeting
NB! · Cinema · London · Monarchies · Humour
London · Monarchies · Society · Humour
At the service in St Paul's Cathedral marking Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, Prince Harry and his wife were seated far from their closest relatives, Prince Charles and Prince William. After Harry's hostile sallies against the family, his father personally, and life at Buckingham Palace,