while you're ahead...

– 157 – Cheltenham Literature Festival, cont.

Monica Dunkley

October 17, 2017

… aka ‘the busiest week I’ve ever known…

The good thing is that this is the last post about the Literature Festival, the bad thing is that it’s a long one, so I’d suggest you grab a cup of whatever float your boat and get comfortable. (alternatively you can just switch off now, I won’t be offended).

Right, let’s do this in chronological order.

First up: Martin Luther. This year it’s the 500 anniversary of his famous 95 thesis and I thought it might be interesting to find out a little bit more about the man. It was. Very interesting, especially made so by the engaging talk of Peter Stamford.

To offset the history talk and give my brain a rest a few hours later Mr M and I attended a live episode of the classic radio show ‘Just a minute’. Hilarious. You can find a few episodes here if you’re not familiar with it…

Quintessentially English. Love it.

THEN – on the same day, because I had booked it months earlier and when I wasn’t thinking about the festival… doh – my sister and I went to the theatre to see ‘Driving Miss Daisy ‘.

Delightful production with great actors (Sian Phillips, Derek Griffiths and Teddy Kempner), subtle, brilliant acting, great dialogue, pared down setting and perfect costumes. It was funny and poignant (especially in the light of current racial tensions) and tender and of course I cried at the end… If it’s coming near you I really urge you to go.

After a few days’ rest, on Sunday… the big one: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

What can I say? What a fascinating talk. Smart smart lady. Interesting to hear her side of the story about the election, she was open about what the shock of loosing and how much it hurt… she was inspiring to when she talked about ‘women’ and breaking down the glass ceiling and the stereotyping and male chauvinism… very, very interesting.

And then … the last event…

… which included wine tasting… what a great way to round-up two excellent weeks.

The event was ran by a company called ‘A book and a bottle’ and the book in question was The musics shop by Rachel Joyce (who also w.rote the Unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Perfect and a many others)

Need to say more? Books and wine?

Joyce’s new book looks likely to be just as delightful as the other I’ve read so I’m looking forward to reading it. (It’ll be a light contrast to Luther)

My favourite wine?

A tasty Malbec from Argentina…

… no I didn’t drive home. Mr M picked me up.

(and yes I do stick things in my diary… no I’m not 16yrs old but thank you for asking)

SaveSave

– 156 – poetry Monday

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

October 16, 2017

Phenomenal Woman ((by Maya Angelou)

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

– 155 – Cheltenham Literature Festival, cont.

Monica Dunkley

no comments

October 12, 2017

Did I mention to you how much I love this festival? There are so many interesting talks all the time that it’s hard to choose or not overdo it… Also, the subjects are so vary that they make my head spin… I wouldn’t be very good at being a specialist of any kind… I like to know about a lot of things… a polymath… (or a jack of all trades and masters of none more likely).

Example no 1, Sunday afternoon: Booker Prize Winner Alan Hollinghurst. Chosen because I had never read anything by him but he keeps being recommended to me by friends. Very interesting and clever man.

Of course I bought one of his books. I’ve started it… looks promising. (Probably the most damning critique to a Booker prize winning nobel… oops. I don’t normally go for British writers that much… but will keep you posted).

Example no 2, Tuesday night. Neuroscientist David Eagleman and composer Anthony Brandt. Yeah… why not? I don’t know anything about either neuroscience or composing music BUT I’m fascinated by the brain and how it works and this was a very absorbing talk.

It wasn’t about how to use creativity to change the world… it was how ‘creativity’, (call it imaginations… whatever) does change the world, by which mechanism…

I absolutely believe that ‘creativity’ in its broader sense (not just ‘art’ related creativity) is THE thing that shapes the world as it is, that advances our civilisation – for the good or bad – and without it we would still be eating cold berry under a prehistoric sky. It’s important to study history and sciences and to know how things work… but without this urge for the new, we wouldn’t be creating anything new and we wouldn’t have anything new to know anything about. Does it make sense?

Anyway, fascinating stuff.

Example No 3, … because I know hardly anything about the Russian Revolution that started 100 years ago this month. And that’s reason enough, right? If you don’t know … you have to find out.

Super interesting although it kind of highlighted my huge hole of ignorance on the subject rather than fill its gaps…

… BUT I came out having seriously brain work out and with some interesting knowledge to boot.

And that can’t be bad right?

I love history.

And science.

And books.

I’m a knowledge butterfly.

SaveSave

– 154 – music Wednesday

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

October 11, 2017

Dancing in the dark came out in May 1984, a month before my 15th birthday and I wanted to cut my hair like Courtney Cox so badly… I must have watched that video a million times. A few weeks later my dad forbids me to go to Bruce’s concert… ah the unfairness of the world viewed through my teenage eyes…. the rolled up short sleeves, the blue eye make up… the first Apple Macintosh on sale, the Olympic games in Los Angeles (Carl Lewis!!)… Mark Zuckerberg is born in May 1984 too, did you know that?… (do you feel old enough? shall I stop?)

Why this song today? I have no idea, but let’s reminisce…

(and cringe a little)

– 153 – …knitting …

Monica Dunkley

2 comments

October 10, 2017

I could have started this post by telling you I had a very relaxing start of the day at the hairdresser drinking coffee and reading magazines… but my day actually began with racing the school bus to school to drop off No 3’s English homework which he’d forgot to pack.

That’s it. The boys have one, and only one, ‘voucher’ per term that allows them to ask me to drop off stuff they’d left at home. After that… they’re on their own. One and only chance. Harsh? I think fair.

Anyway, after then racing back to the hairdresser not to miss my apt (too much gray!!!) I did get to have a coffee and leaf through magazines and you know what…. it seems ‘woolly things are back in fashion…

little collar things…

intarsia and cables…

big scarves…(btw… this garter stitch scarf? £670!!! ok, Prada, I do admire your style… but now you’re having a laugh… right?)

A scarf to match your sweater? awesome. (Who am I kidding… how long would that take me?)

I swear I had a big cardigan in crazy patches back in the 80s…. one should never throw away anything.

I’m a little worried about this super long sleeves look… knitting sleeves is so boring… as a matter of fact the sweater I’m knitting has short sleeves!

not that you can see it from the photo, but trust me, they won’t stick out from my coat sleeves. (I’m knitting NUUK, from the first issue of Laine Magazine, in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in fossil colour way.

And apropos of nothing… this sign was on the door of a closed down shoe shop in town…

Painful.

all photos from Elle magazine and Marie Claire magazine October issues.

SaveSave

– 152 – family history

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

October 9, 2017

This is mum’s family. Mum herself is the little girl in the middle of the front row, hair in a bob pulled off her face by an hairpin. The young lady on the left is my aunty Marta wearing a very ‘on trend’ for 2017 Autumn, pleated skirt. I may or may not have bought a very similar from Anthropologie recently… ahem…

Behind mum is Nonno Arturo whom I’ve never really met as it died when I was around three… I have an image of an old man coming out of a bedroom in grandma’s house (that house in the picture)… but it’s fuzzy and vague. Maybe it’s him, maybe I’ve imagined him.

The little boy near mum is Uncle Africa, well his name is Andrea but that is how my boys know him as he’s lived in Zimbabwe for years. He was great fun when we were little… he used to drive a yellow Citroen 2CV, leave only the wooden stalk of an apple when he had one, wore Dr School Clogs and be partial to the odd dog biscuit, which we thought was an extraordinarily eccentric thing to do. He also shares a birthday with Bilbo Baggins, ‘the hobbit’.

Uncle Franco is the dashing young man on the right of the picture. He was in the merchant navy for years and was the greatest machinist… you could give him any motor/engine/gadget… and he’ could fix it. He also built the cutest two storey little garden house for his kids which had a carpeted top floor and I thought was the best thing ever. He was the first person I knew that drank tomato juice in the morning…. which I though was disgusting by the way, although now… I think what he was probably drinking was a ‘hair of the dog’ bloody Mary… you know what they say about sailors.

And in the middle is my awesome grandmother, Nonna Fatma, who sadly died when I was 16 and whom I still miss terribly. She was widowed quite young and started travelling the world and I totally blame her for my travel bug. I remember her talking about riding camels in Egypt, walking along the great wall of China, almost getting arrested in Moscow for wandering off by herself, about eating the hottest food in Thailand… and all this 40 years ago… She was also the most skilful professional seamstress and made the best custard doughnuts.

These photos must have been taken shortly after they moved into their new house. The way I remember it that little terrace up there was completely covered by a giant wisteria which looks being just planted in the photo.

And the patio they’re standing here had been replaced by a garage by the time I’ve arrived.

So many memories of that houses… Uncle Africa lives there with his family now and I’m glad. It would be terribly sad if it were strangers.

– 151 – Cheltenham Literature Festival

Monica Dunkley

no comments

October 8, 2017

(Useless fact: I can’t pronounce the word ‘literature’ properly, my tongue gets totally twisted)

ANYWAY… the my favourite festival of the whole year is in town and it’s brilliant as usual…

If you get the chance do go… even if it’s just to have lunch at the many food trucks or grab a coffee and browse the books. It’s beautifully set up this year. My favourite so far.

I kicked off the two weeks with the most delightful hour in the company of Alexander McCall Smith.

He is just like his books. Witty, and cheerful – he has a wicked chuckle – larger than life and full of funny anecdotes. I had read quite a few (he’s a very prolific author) of his Botswana novels but was very intrigued to hear more about the two other series based in Edinburgh so of course I had to buy a book to know more. Of course. Right?

They’re so charming and funny in a marvellously subtly way…

All in the name of research you understand… and it would have been rude not to, of course!

In the evening Mr M and I attended a different kind of talk:

There used to be one of Banksy’s work, a ‘Banksy’, here in Cheltenham, but it fell fowl of human greed and stupidity and it’s now no more… which is a shame.

Very interesting talk which gave a background on Banksy and his artist and raised fascinating questions on what street art is and should ‘money’ be involved, if street art and activism are linked (and of course they are) is preserving it the right thing? isn’t the fact that it’s here now but can be gone tomorrow (painted over, tagged over, destroyed whatever) part of its raison d’être? Is it right that Banksy’s art gets taken off walls and sold for hundreds of thousands pound?

The speakers included Banksy’s former manager and now urban art dealer Steve Lazarides, the author Ed Bartlett and culture editor Steve Wright all under the watchful eye of Will Gomperts.

I always feel that all talks should be longer than an hour and leave me wanting for more…

On a different note I have a basement full of 15yr olds that have just woken up from a very short sleepover and now the whole house is shaking to some god awful music. I daren’t going down there and see the carnage, although No 2 assures me everything is fine, they did actually get some sleep (at 4am) and have even done some washing up …. seeing is believing on that one…

My boy is fifteen… sigh…

… tempus fugit…

Sigh.

SaveSave

– 150 – making stuff…

Monica Dunkley

2 comments

October 6, 2017

So this week I had all good intentions of talking to you guys loads… and then I lost two whole days with the mother of all headaches. One of those headaches when you feel your brain is too physically too big for your head and therefore your head feels like it’s going to explode… I really wanted someone to release the pressure or knock me out. Neither of the two things happened.. I vaguely remember doing tons of ironing in a kind of comatose fog cloud but judging from the state of No 1’s school shirt this morning… I might as well not have bothered.

Talking about child No 1… this morning when I asked him if he’d made his bed he said the bed was in a ‘super state’… neither made nor unmade or both made and unmade… and only by ‘checking’ I’d determine the fate of the bed. So perhaps I shouldn’t try. (Something to do with Schroedinger and his damned cat). Don’t you hate when education bites you in the butt?

Anyway, a few months ago in a fit of positivity I’ve booked a table at a local pop up Market (which runs from Oct 30th to Nov 4th at The Wilson Museum here in Cheltenham)… completely ignoring the fact that October is a stupidly busy month which includes a family holiday and the Festival of Literature… gazillions rugby and hockey games and No 2’s birthday.

Yeah… good move Monica.

Anyway, I’ve agreed to do it so we’ll see how it goes… therefore I’ve been sneaking to odd hour or half hour in my studio to try to build a decent stock level..

There’ will be a few quilts, and table runners and pencil rolls..

Christmas decorations

.. vintage ones too…

and crochet garlands…

and we’ll see whatever next I can make by then…

Fancy coming? Let me know and we can say ‘hi’!!

SaveSave

– 149 – poetry Monday

Monica Dunkley

1 comment

October 2, 2017

This is why I love Instagram and the whole ‘sharing’ that goes on in the social world… yes, I’m aware not all is good, but when it is… it’s brilliant. I saw this book on Dana’s feed and what a great discover it was. Amazing poetry and I don’t think I would have come across it any other way…

The following is the opening poem.

Something you should know (by Clint Smith)

is that as a kid, I once worked at a pet store.

I cleaned the cages

of small a animals like turtles, hamsters,

rabbits, and hermit crabs.

I watched the hermit crab continue

to grow, most, shed its skin and scurry across

the bottom of the aquarium to find a new shell.

Which left me afraid for the small creature,

to run around all exposed that way, to have

to live its entire life requiring something else

to feel safe. Perhaps that is when I became afraid

of needing anything beyond myself. Perhaps

tha is why, even now, I can want to so desperately

to show you all of my skin, but am more afraid

of meeting you, exposed, in open water.

– 148 – wallpaper

Monica Dunkley

no comments

September 29, 2017

When we first moved into this house two years ago (already!!) we gave one swatch to the decorators – one – Dulux Chiffon White no 4 and told them to paint everything. Walls, ceilings, woodwork, windows… everything. We wanted a plain canvas on which to hang our pictures and set our furniture against and more than anything we wanted to get to know the house: the way the light changes through the seasons, how we’d live it… Chiffon white is warm and bright and doesn’t take over.

…BUT inevitably… after a while… the itch to decorate takes over and whilst I still haven’t been able to convince Mr M that our bedroom needs to go darker… the spare room is getting a make over…

Time to play with wallpaper.

I love wallpaper let me tell you. I could have looked through sample books for hours – I kind of did – and online too although it’s not the same… you need to touch it to really feel if it works or not.

The room we’re using for our guests is tiny. There’s room for a double bed but only one bedside table… so the dilemma was… do we wallpaper the wall behind the bed only? (I hate the expression ‘feature wall’… but that’s what we were thinking) or do we do the whole shebang?

Decision… decision…

Anyway, these are the samples that I collected together:

Sandberg Wallpaper, – Gild, in black – gorgeous Swedish company… could have chosen all of them out of their books. Calming and natural.

Farrow & Ball – Blostma – reminds me a little of the 20s and my grandmother’s bedroom furniture. So delicate and restful.

The one of the left is from the latest Jane Churchill range which she says it’s inspired by Matisse’s work… and I’m saying it’s suspiciously similar to this one.

The one of the right it’s another one from Farrow & Ball – Aranami – which totally reminds me of the Bloomsbury set.

Then I explored ‘blue’.. but the room is too small and not right… but aren’t they wonderful? sigh… Farrow & Ball – Yokutori – on the left, Graham and Brown – Indigo blue – on the right.

Then I tried pink.. which I really like but pink in a house full of boys is about as popular as fish night around here. Farrow & Ball – Wisteria – and Graham and Brown – Tropical Blush.

The vintage angle flopped. We like it in principle, we toyed with he idea but we were too worried that to get bored of it in a really short time. So we scrapped it.

Graham and Brown – Do the Stretch – on the left. Little Greene ’50’s Line papers’ on the right.

So… you might ask… which wallpaper won the contest?

Ta dahhh…

It’s a little bit girlie, but not too much, it’s fresh and the neutral colour will allow me to personalise/change the mood and feel by changing the the bedlinen and cushions and even pictures on the wall…

That’s the plan anyway!

Gilda it is… can’t wait.

The new bed is ordered… so curtains are next… I find those more challenging…

SaveSave