Click here to read the feature .Dwina Gibb This pic was taken at the launch of Oxford Castaways 3 . These are some of the castaways. They include Roger Bannister-the first man to run a mile in under 4
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/27/dont-interfere-with-brexit-archbishop-of-canterbury-justin-welby-told With the Archbishop chairing one hopes that the language will be respectful. How has our political language become so debased? The Sun and Fox News have had the lowest standards for ever but in government and society as a
Just listened to my friend Ray Foulk on the Today Programme describing how he stole Dylan from Woodstock . It is the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival but the most famous and elusive artist of the time was not
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00075hn What a brilliant interview! As a humble freelance writer I was privileged that Chris (Lord) Patten of Barnes and Chancellor of Oxford University agreed to be interviewed by me. His castaway story is in Oxford Castaways 2. There is
Grayson Perry: the Hogarth of 2017? I LOVE Grayson Perry. My first sight of his work was at the Turner Prize in 2003. From a distance his pots were exquisite high glazed and somewhat feminine. Up close there was something
Friday 30 August: the Ashmolean: I'll be guiding a tour of visiting Chinese academics. I'm calling it ' Crossing Cultures ;Crossing Time' and emphasising how ideas and inventions spread from East to West and from West to East' . I
I spent a delightful Saturday revisiting Chiang Yee -the charming artist who was ‘The Silent Traveller in Oxford etc. I first encountered his books when I ran the Jam Factory (1987-1998) and I loved them. After a symposium at the
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-48476879/tiananmen-s-tank-man-the-image-that-china-forgot In China it is dangerous to mourn the students who died in the Tiananmen Square 30 years ago today. Even more citizens of Beijing died trying to stop the tanks reaching the square. My novel ‘Brushstrokes in Time’ could
Writing about art and antiques gave me my first opportunities to write professionally. I reviewed over 300 exhibitions and for 10 years wrote a popular monthly feature on antiques in Oxfordshire Limited Edition. (OLE) This was the first one and
It will be possible to read Sculpting the Elephant as a moving love story and ignore the historical subplot but I hope it will grip readers. My Victorian polymath works for the Great Trigonometrical Survey - the nineteenth century equivalent