A shop selling booze in Kerala (India)

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AT PRESENT I am working on the text of my forthcoming travel book, which will be called “Road to Heaven -A passage through India”. Here is a brief excerpt from the chapter about Fort Kochi (Fort Cochin) in Kerala:

“No description of Fort Kochi would be complete without describing a visit to the Kerala State Beverages store, a state government run alcoholic drinks store – the only place in Fort Kochi (apart from some expensive restaurants and hotels), where bottles of spirits can be purchased. Located some distance away from the centre of Fort Kochi in a residential suburb with many trees, this establishment has two floors beneath its rooftop terrace. The ground floor has barred windows, a metal grille, behind which the storekeepers work, surrounded by a crowded collection of piled up crates containing bottles of booze. A crowd of (mostly) men gather around a small aperture in the grille, and buy bottles of beer and small bottles of spirit. This part of the shop looks depressing, as if someone wants to give the message that alcohol is evil, and you need to be desperately in need of it to approach the place. We were directed to the upper floor, which was a complete contrast to what was below it. Bottles of alcohol, gins, brandies, liqueurs, and whiskys, both Indian and imported, were nicely displayed, as in any well-organised supermarket. Customers select what they want, and pay at a cash desk. The drinks that were on sale on this floor were different from, and much more expensive than what was available from behind the barred windows on the ground floor. Buying one’s own booze is far cheaper than ordering it in a bar or restaurant in Kerala.“

Moore and his maquettes in London’s Mayfair

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THE ARTIST HENRY Moore (1898-1986) is probably best known for his huge sculptures, a collection of which are on display at Kew Gardens until 31 January 2027. These massive artworks had small beginnings.

Moore’s large works began life as sketches and, often, as small maquettes (models or miniature sculptures that were often small enough to be held in the palm of a hand). At his country estate at Perry Green in Hertfordshire, one building was dedicated to making maquettes. The maquettes were rather like small three-dimensional sketches. At Perry Green, visitors can see hundreds of Moore’s maquettes, many of which never became developed further.

Plasticine, clay, and plaster were the malleable materials that Moore chose to use for creating maquettes. From the 1950s, he favoured plaster over other materials. It is malleable before it sets, and unlike clay that becomes very hard when dried, plaster is soft enough to cut or carved or inscribed after it has set. Maquettes that pleased him were later copied, modified as needed, to create the larger, final sculptures in various materials. Thus, the artist’s initial idea embodied in the maquette became realised as a finished sculpture.

Some of Moore’s maquettes have been cast into bronze, and make fine but tiny collectable sculptures. There is an exhibition of these bronze maquettes, each of them depicting female forms, at Richard Green Gallery in London’s New Bond Street. The maquettes are well-displayed, and on the gallery’s wall, there are informative panels with details about the artist and the way he worked. Some of the maquettes we saw must have been ‘precursors’ for several of Moore’s sculptures in Tate Britain.

We saw the exhibition on 24 June 2026. I rang the gallery to discover when the exhibition will finish, and was told that it will continue until all the maquettes are sold. So, if you have between £230, 000 and £1,000,000 going spare, hurry up and buy one!

Sarajevo and a tragic attempt at comedy at a theatre in London

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ONE OF THE triggers of WW1, during which too many people were killed, was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo (Bosnia) in 1914. The planning of this murder is the subject of a play, “Archduke” by Rajiv Joseph. It is currently showing at the Royal Court Theatre in London’s Sloane Square. Because of its subject matter and my interest in the Balkans, I was looking forward to watching this play.

The playwright has tried to turn the historic event into a comedy. I might not have minded that, had it been written better. However, the humour was thin, and the play’s plot even slenderer. Given this poor treatment, I did not feel that Rajiv Joseph had treated the serious subject well. I have no objection to light-heartedness, but “Archduke” was not even that – it was a weak attempt to get the audience tittering, which it did but rather embarrassingly in my opinion.

Usually, the plays we have watched at the Royal Court – be they serious or humorous – are of a high quality. Sadly, “Archduke” neither met my expectations nor was as superb as most other productions I have seen at that theatre.

A novelist in Burma when it was a colony of Britain

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AT PRESENT I AM revising and editing my latest book, which is about travelling in India and will be called “Road To Heaven – A passage through India “. While writing the text I came across a quote by the author George Orwell. I am incorporating this in my forthcoming book. The words come from Orwell’s novel “Burmese Days”, which I decided to read.

The novel is set in a small town in Burma while the country was still part of British India. The author provides the reader with an exciting story that is also a jaundice view of the behaviour of the British, the Burmese, and the Chinese living in colonial Burma.

The story’s hero is Mr Flory, who loves Burma but finds it difficult to get on with the few repellent sounding Brits with whom he has to socialise at the town’s ‘whites’ only club.

“Burmese Days” contains many ingredients that make for a good story: romance, unrequited love, intrigues, treachery, rebellion, adventure, and good evocation of ‘atmosphere’. Based on his own experiences in Burma, it is also Orwell’s criticism of the British colonial system. Published in 1934 while the British still controlled Burma, it must have been frowned upon by many British readers when it was published.

I enjoyed the book, and found it difficult to put down.

Two sundials on a church in Hitchin (Hertfordshire)

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HITCHIN IS A delightful place to visit in Hertfordshire. It has a pleasant town centre with plenty of picturesque old buildings. Near the town square, stands the church of St Mary, which was constructed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Its tower has two sundials.

The two sundials are next to each other but face in different directions: one southeast, and the other southwest. The southeast dial carries the date 1660 and the words “Anno Salutis”. It celebrates the year that the monarchy was restored after Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth ended and Charles II became King of England.

I wondered why the church has two sundials next to each other. From what I could glean from the Internet, it seems that one dial catches the morning light better than the other, and the second one works best in the afternoon light. A website (https://sundialsoc.org.uk/wp_bridol/pages/S4/S4036.html)  explained that the dial bearing the date 1660:

“Shows time 5am to noon in 30 & 15 min marks. Noon marked with cross.”

The other sundial, that facing southwest, comes into its own after noon. There might be other examples of paired sundials, but this is the first I have spotted.

Trying to handle Handel at London’s Barbican Centre

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LAST NIGHT WE attended a concert performance of “Serse” by Friedrich Handel (first performed in 1738) at the Barbican Hall.

The music was beautifully performed, the singing was great, and the acoustics excellent. The surtitles were quirky and colloquial, rather than faithful translations of the Italian.

Despite all the positive aspects of the performance, I felt something was lacking. That was not only the scarcity of acting but also something else. I think that attending the performance live at the Barbican Hall was only slightly better than hearing a recording of this piece played on a good hifi system.

Finally, I must mention that the number of toilets at the Barbican is totally inadequate to cope with the vast audience that attends shows in the hall.

20 June 2026

Canvases filled with colour at a gallery in London’s Kensington Gardens

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DURING MY FIRST visit to an exhibition of paintings by Cecily Brown (born in London in 1969) at the Serpentine South Gallery (until 6 September 2026), I was not much taken with her works. On that occasion, I do not think I was in the mood for looking at art. Realising this, I revisited the show today, 19 June 2026. I came away from it satisfied with what I had viewed.

Cecily’s education in art was at Epsom School of Art, then at Morley College, and later at the Slade School of Art. She did well, receiving various awards. And since completing her studies, her works have been hung in many prestigious museums and galleries in Britain, the rest of Europe, and the USA.

Apart from a collection of pen and ink drawings that resemble illustrations for children’s books, most of the works on display at the Serpentine are canvases. Each of them is covered by what at first sight looks like a riot of colour. However, closer examination reveals that within these seemingly chaotic collections of sweeping brushstrokes, there are many details, such as people embracing, plants (flowers, trees, and bushes), animals, ponds, letter boxes, buildings (including an aerial view of the Serpentine Gallery), and more.

Although I enjoyed seeing these pictures during my second visit to the gallery, I cannot place Cecily Brown amongst the modern and contemporary artists whose works please me most.

An unfortunate symbol on the pocket of my school blazer

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BETWEEN 1960 AND 1965, I attended The Hall School in London’s Swiss Cottage district. This private preparatory school for boys had uniforms that were pink and black. The blazer was pink with black trimmings and had a black Maltese cross on its chest pocket.

The Maltese cross on our blazers not only looked like the German Iron Cross, but also could be found on planes in Hitler’s Luftwaffe.

I used to travel by bus between Swiss Cottage and Golders Green, which was near our family home. At Golders Green, there were often children from many different schools on their way home. I remember that on at least one occasion, some schoolboys who saw me in my Hall School blazer, shouted, having noticed its Maltese cross:

“Here come the Nazis“.

I had largely forgotten about this until recently when I came across a photograph of me in my blazer, standing in our garden. I am not sure that I was much disturbed by what these boys had shouted, but I knew enough history to realise it was not meant to be friendly.