Pieces that take a look at: art; books; stage; film; restaurants; hotels; destinations; hospitals; sport; and …
A Plague of Caterpillars – A Return to the African Bush by Nigel Barley
This book was sent to me as a review copy.
He is back!
This is the second part of The Innocent Anthropologist’s adventures in the land of the Dowayo in Cameroon.
The Innocent Anthropologist – Notes from a Mud Hut by Nigel Barley
This book was sent to me as a review copy.
The Innocent Anthropologist is a cultural dive into the deep end.
Written in the early 1980s by anthropologist Nigel Barley, it describes the author’s first attempt at fieldwork in Africa. The result, built around us and others, is shocking and funny, and bashed about with the perils of first hand observation. Continue reading
Here’s another piece on Camden Lock Market’s West Yard. It was written in 2012 after a visit to the food stalls. I’d love to know if anyone has fresh news of the food there. There was such a great atmosphere when I visited.
Fresh food in Camden Lock Market’s West Yard
The food stalls in the West Yard of Camden Lock Market last Friday were all sunshine and service. It was a world food experience – a gap year in a lunch-hour…minus the alcohol.
If you have a London ‘to-do’ list that burst with parks, palaces, museums and big stores perhaps you might add Camden Market. It’s a day out to stretch the senses – a break from the big brands.
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Do you remember this film? I found this review back in the early pages of The Phraser so I’ve dusted it off, and am showing it again. The film made me smile so much the first time.
Angels’ Share – a film directed by Ken Loach
Angels’ Share introduces us to a group of Glasgow’s young offenders as they spiral down into nowhere…and then it adds hope, urgent, illogical hope.
It’s a ninety minute diamond of a film, with an age-restriction of 15, some on-your-nose violence, and great publicity for whisky and Irn-Bru. It also shows the meaning of useful compassion, and it feels real.
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Here’s something with fright attached. I remember Felix Baumgartner’s jump so well…we listened to the live broadcast whilst driving into rain on an English motorway.
Garnerin parachutes into London -1802
That was 1802 – a decade over two centuries later the following happens: a huge gossamer balloon floats into the nothing of the stratosphere. Beneath it clings the tiny dot of a capsule, and inside it is an Austrian, Felix Baumgartner, aged 43.
When the balloon reaches 128,000 feet (24 miles) above the Earth, he will step out and drop into the deep.
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My first visit to the food stalls in Camden Lock Market’s West Yard was in 2012. I loved it and a few articles followed. This is one of them.
Camden Lock Market, London
Camden’s markets attract some 15 million visitors every year. This summer we joined the crowd.
Once through the curiosity and distraction of the general stalls and the shoppers, we made our way to the West Yard for food.
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Skyfall was released in 2012 – a Bond box office best, as dramatic as they come…and with strange side effects.
Skyfall smashed British box office history and set the tills ringing.
We were there. We popcorned in for bombs and bashings; for smouldering moods; for shriek-screetching music; for back-stabbing; for ‘British is best’; and for villains who should have been locked away for life.
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