Update on The Arts: Oct 21 – January 2022

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These three months have been a mixture of lock-down and ‘traffic light freedom’.  Consequently, I have not only had a chance to hunker down into reading but also to move back to the cinema.  This has been exciting.  But it has mainly been reading that has preoccupied me.   BOOKS I have read some wonderful fiction and non-fiction in the past … Read More

Update on The Arts: Aug – October 2022

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Because of time limitations, my involvement in the Arts has been largely restricted to reading fiction over the past three months, with a focus being around the Booker Prize (see below).  Hence, I only discuss books in this update, rather than the occasional movie, play or Netflix series that I may have watched.   BOOKS My reading over these three months … Read More

Update on The Arts: May – July 2022

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With life being back to near-normal over the past three months, I have been back to near-normal in terms of reading quality fiction, watching some great theatre and viewing some wonderful movies and series.  It has been an exhilarating term for me arts-wise. BOOKS I’ve had a chance to read 9 novels over the past three months, several of which … Read More

Update on The Arts: Feb – April 2022

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With regards to the arts, these three months have been an exquisite mixture of reading quality fiction (11 texts in all), viewing some great movies on the big screen, and watching some excellent series on the small screen.  Viewing and watching is always great at this time of the year as the world moves toward ‘Oscar season’.   There has to … Read More

Update on The Arts: May – July 2021

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I’m beginning this Arts review with my reading journey that included three of the novels short-listed for the 2021 International Booker Prize – two translated into English from French and one from Spanish.  Subsequently, I read another seven novels from around the world: three from America, one from the UK, one from Egypt, one from Barbados and one from across … Read More

Update on The Arts: Sept 2020 – January 2021

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At the end of my last Arts Update (August 2020), I was part way through reading Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet and about to start David Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue.  I would highly recommend both of these novels, but especially Hamnet. Set in seventeenth-century Warwickshire (England), Hamnet is a beautifully written fictionalisation of the ups and downs of William Shakespeare’s family and particularly … Read More