Showing results by narrator "Christopher Selbie" in All Categories

Review of the exhibition of visionary artist William Blake at Tate Britain, September 2019: The exhibition is arranged in eight rooms of the downstairs gallery spaces of Tate Britain, low-lit, maroon-painted walls, a very comprehensive collection of a highly original and complex visionary creator.

When Richard Griffiths meets attractive Andrea Nelson he is expecting nothing more than a holiday romance. But soon he is embroiled in a sinister web of deceit and corruption which reaches into the highest levels of the European parliament. As atrocity follows atrocity, Richard’s cousin, Commander Nick Hunter RN of the International Force Against Terrorism, is called in to chase down the villains before more innocent lives are lost. In a fight against time, this is Henke at his pause-resisting best.

Seven days in Funchal on the Island of Madeira. Journal notes of the settings, locations, and personal stories in diary entries.

The Sudan, World War Two; British and Italian forces consumed by a guerilla warfare struggle under the African Sun. Cagliari, Sardinia 1990, the English invade the small Italian island during the World Cup. 2015, two young people trying to find their way in life in 21st Century London. An epic saga, based on two families, and three generations, spanning almost a century. A Bridge and not an End will take the listener across time, oceans, and continents, and explore the concepts of family and love, in a framework of historical events.

A collection of reviews made from January to June 2019 of exhibitions in museums and galleries in London and Oxford. The volume proceeds from Small Histories, published in 1996 then updated in 2011. Contents include: Mantegna/Bellini at the National Gallery, John Ruskin at Temple Place, Elizabethan Miniatures at the National Portrait Gallery, Pierre Bonnard at Tate Modern, Mary Quant at the V&A, Jeff Koons at the Ashmolean Oxford, and Anish Kapoor at the Lisson Gallery London.

Peter Hartley wrote the poems in this book in a little over a year but they represent many of the joys and some of the sorrows of a lifetime. They reflect a love of Labrador retrievers and penguins, cryptic crosswords, mountains and travel, wild and lonely places, the poetry of Hopkins, baroque music (especially Handel), a dislike for most modern art and architecture, and an extremely odd attitude towards cats. While nearing completion the author’s partner was struck down by motor neuron disease.

The 251st Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy London in a review recorded at the press view on 3rd June 2019. The Summer Exhibition is most popular event in the nation’s cultural calendar, and commercially the most successful. It allows works in all media, print/photography/painting/sculpture/architectural models - with rooms arranged by different Royal Academicians, some of whom, like Barbara Rae’s Arctic room, set a theme to their hang.

A recorded visit to an exhibition by Anish Kapoor at the Lisson Gallery, London continued to 22nd June, 2019. Includes descriptions of works and bio-dara of the artist.

Viewing the exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford by American Artist Jeff Koons (born 1955). Considers sculptures such as Silvered Ballerinas, a Magenta Balloon Venus, and GPS System. Also the artist's re-constitution of classic works by Titiam, Rubens, and Gericault with the inclusion of a blue glass sphere.

On the march, around the campfire, and in the taverns, they tell incredible stories about Tarmun Vykers, the Reaper - how he's never been cut in battle, how he once defeated hundreds of men by himself, how he exterminated an entire people over an insult. These stories make Vykers seem like a god, but he is a man, an arrogant, ruthless, and bloodthirsty man. For all that, he may be the only thing standing between the human race and utter annihilation at the hands of the mad wizard who calls himself the End-of-All-Things.

There is room for a book on this subject, among the vast mass of publications about the visual arts that flow from British and American publishing houses every year. Gay art, from being a quasi-forbidden topic, is now fashionable, not least among would-be up-to-the-minute academics.

'AIDS art' is essentially an American invention. It has now manifested itself in a large number of different locations, but is almost invariably based on a model of artistic activity that evolved in the United States - one that was a response to the impact made by the epidemic on sections of American society.

After aspiring novelist Jake Conley regains consciousness from a coma, he discovers he’s affected by synaesthesia and that his now cross-wired brain endows him with heightened psychic powers. Jake’s research on the Northumbrian king Aldfrith takes him to Elfrid’s Hole in North Yorkshire, where - as legend relates - the king sheltered after a bloody battle. What Jake doesn't realize is that his investigation has unleashed a series of deadly paranormal events in which Jake himself becomes the prime suspect.

From the Elusive Muse's Lexicon is a second volume of poetry to accompany the earlier, "A Storm in Pandora's Tea Box". It touches upon a diverse range of subjects, from a homage to London's beloved River Thames, a trilogy of Coventry poems anticipating the City's role as UK City of Culture in 2021, tributes to departed musician friends, plus reflections upon sources of inspiration and sometimes consternation, as we navigate a course through life's amazing and often challenging journey.