Catalogue Blog

2007-04-26T12:07:00.000Z

Having just received a query about it, this is just to say that my blog has moved to http://annewelsh.wordpress.com and my cuttings are at http://www.connotea.org/user/AnneWelsh

2006-10-20T18:23:00.000Z

'Jackanory gets revamp for specials with CGI characters' by Owen Gibson, The Guardian, 20 October 2006.

2006-10-19T18:25:00.000Z

'Darwin's entire works go online' by Ian Sample, The Guardian, 19 October 2006.

2006-10-19T18:19:00.000Z

"Ted Hughes's wife, Sylvia Plath, famously killed herself. But what of his mistress, who four years later did the same?" 'Written out of history', The Guardian, 19 October 2006.

For the reading list: A Lover of Unreason: The Biography of Assia Wevill by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev. Published by Robson Books, price £20.00.

2006-10-18T19:21:00.000Z

"But the novelties come thick and fast, beginning (so far as I was concerned) with the suggestion on page 10 that Dante and other poets he associated with in Florence as a young man might have given their visionary and dreamlike imaginings a boost with the stimulus of love-potions. These herbal stimulants, cannabis perhaps, may, it turns out later, be what Dante is referring to in the comparison, near the start of Paradiso, between his own “trans-human” experience and what Glaucus felt “on tasting of the herb” (nel gustar dell’erba) which made him into a sea-god. As Reynolds explains at greater length when she comes to the final vision of the Godhead, mystics did often use drugs of one kind or another in conjunction with fasting and meditation in their pursuit of visionary illumination. There is no reason, she argues, why Dante should not have done so too."
'Dante on drugs' by Peter Hainsworth, reviewing Dante: the poet, the political thinker, the man, Shaw (ed.), Tauris, 2006. Times Literary Supplement, 18 October 2006.

2006-10-17T18:28:00.000Z

"Female crime writers should give thanks that [Agatha Christie] vanished, even if it's really no mystery at all" 'Agatha, we all owe you' by Frances Fyfield, The Guardian, 17 October 2006.

2006-10-16T20:03:00.000Z

'A small-sized history of fashion in the movies' by Sheila Johnston, Telegraph.co.uk, 16 September 2006.

2006-10-14T18:44:00.000Z

"What drove two artists to track down every stuffed polar bear in Britain?" 'Bear-faced chic of Arctic giants' by Benjamin Secher, The Telegraph, 14th October 2006.

'Horniman Museum searches for missing polar bear' by Melina Greenfield, 24 Museum, 11 October 2006.

The Great White Bear at the Horniman Museum, 21 October 2006 - 25 March 2007.

2006-10-09T19:27:00.000Z

"Visitors to Tate Modern will be able to try out five giant slides that have been unveiled at the London gallery."
'Tate Modern unveils giant slides', BBC News, 9 October 2006.

2006-10-09T19:10:00.000Z

"Poetry is perennially on the ropes, a pensive, esoteric artform in a world absorbed by novelty and new media. But Poet Laureate Andrew Motion says it can resonate with all ages and an unlikely ambassador for the young is a certain Pete Doherty."
'Chatter and verse' by Sean Coughlan, BBC News Magazine, 9 October 2006.

2006-10-03T19:29:00.000Z

Pete Doherty's favourite poets:
''Emily Dickinson? She's hardcore'', The Guardian, 3 October 2006.

2006-10-02T19:48:00.000Z

'Power and Taboo: Polynesian gods at the British Museum', 24 Hour Museum, 2 October 2006.

Power & Taboo: Sacred Objects from the Pacific, British Museum, 28 September 2006 - 7 January 2007.

2006-10-01T19:02:00.000Z

'Robert Frost Poem Discovered Tucked Away in Book' by Andrea Seabrook, NPR, 1 October 2006.

2006-09-28T18:40:00.000Z

Review of Rodin Exhibition:
'At the Royal Academy' by Peter Campbell, London Review of Books, 28(19).

2006-09-24T18:32:00.000Z

"As the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union nears, an academic has fanned controversy by claiming the 'parcel of rogues' did not sell Scotland down the river." 'Betrayed? No, Scots wanted the Union' by Lorna Martin, The Observer, 24 September 2006.

2006-09-23T19:36:00.000Z

'Unveiled: early copy that reveals Mona Lisa as her creator intended' by Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian, 23 September 2006.

2006-09-19T19:57:00.000Z

'How lust shaped the art of Rodin' by Richard Dorment, The Telegraph, 19 September 2006 - includes slideshow and podcast.

2006-09-19T19:54:00.000Z

"None of Leonardo's inventions ever took off, but an exhibition of his scientific drawings reveals how his extraordinary mind worked"
'New light on a high-flying genius' by Richard Dorment, The Telegraph, 19 September 2006 - includes slideshow.

2006-09-19T19:38:00.000Z

"Martyrs and lovers, kissers and thinkers, the good and the damned ... Rodin's exaggerated figures tell us what it is to be human."
'Your own flesh and blood' by Adrian Searle, The Guardian, 19 September 2006.

2006-09-14T19:41:00.000Z

'Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment and Design' by Adrian Searle, The Guardian, 14 September 2006.

2006-09-11T17:20:00.000Z

'A walk in the dark' by Jonathan Jones. The Guardian, 17 August, 2006
- Hogarth Trail.

2006-09-11T17:16:00.000Z

'Ted Hughes, the domestic tyrant ' by David Smith. The Observer, 10 September 2006.

2006-09-11T17:13:00.000Z

"The bestselling novelist Susan Hill yesterday accused senior managers of public libraries of abandoning their commitment to books and manoeuvring to turn library buildings into social centres." ('Writer rues library changes' by John Ezard. The Guardian, 11 September 2006).

2006-09-10T20:35:00.000Z

Index of Medieval Medical Images - from UCLA

2006-09-10T20:34:00.002Z

Exploring Photography: Photographic Processes - microsite from the V&A.

2006-09-10T20:34:00.001Z

'Isolated grave for "Treasure Island" author' by Iain Lundy. The Scotsman, 5 September 2006.

2006-09-10T20:33:00.001Z

'Million Little Pieces may cost publishers millions in refunds' by Dan Glaister, The Guardian, 8 September 2006.

2006-09-09T20:22:00.000Z

From Cradle to Grave: an art installation by David Critchley, Susie Freeman and Liz Lee

COMPASS entry

Woman's Hour, 2003

On the cover of the BMJ, 333(7557)

2006-09-09T20:21:00.000Z

"From cradle to grave": NHS History

2006-08-28T23:05:00.000Z

'Paddington Bear: a case study of immigration and otherness' by Angela Smith. Children's Literature in Education, 37(1), March 2006.

"Paddington, as a series of books begun in the late 1950s, presents issues of anti-racism and ‘Otherness’ which can be revealed through a close textual analysis of the introductory chapters of the first book in series, A Bear Called Paddington (1958), whilst also showing how the dominant culture retains its superior status."

Full text free to download from the Springer site.

2006-08-22T23:13:00.000Z

Light Magic: The life and work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (iToors.com).

2006-08-21T18:35:00.000Z

'British Library acquires 'outstanding' Coleridge family archive' by Richard Lea, Guardian Unlimited, 21 August 2006.

'Coleridge's descendants sell papers that reveal family's views on a maverick poet', by Louise Jury, The Independent, 21 August 2006.

2006-08-18T23:15:00.000Z

'We've had enough of Greek myths' by Bernadine Evaristo. The Independent, 13 August 2006.

"The poetry establishment needs black and Asian writers to invigorate a tired old scene."

2006-08-17T23:18:00.000Z

One life: Walt Whitman, a kosmos - new minisite from the Smithsonian.

2006-08-09T23:21:00.000Z

'Fable of Flesh' by Hadara Bar-Nadav. AGNI Online, August 2006.

2006-08-07T23:23:00.000Z

"QUEEN guitarist Brian May has given thousands of pounds to save hedgehogs from slaughter in the Outer Hebrides, it emerged yesterday...

it is said to be enough to pay for the rescue of hundreds of hedgehogs from the Uists, where Scottish Natural Heritage has been culling the animals for the past four years.

The hedgehogs pose a threat to rare ground-nesting birds and their eggs.

So far more than 500 have been killed by lethal injection and more than 700 saved. There are believed to be about 3,000 left on the islands."

'Top rock guitarist helps save islands' hedgehogs' by Mike Merritt. The Scotsman, 7 August 2006.

2006-08-06T23:24:00.000Z

'How Richard and Judy rewrote the bestseller lists' by Rob Sharp. The Observer, 6 August 2006.

2006-08-04T23:26:00.000Z

The National Archives have made the Domesday Book available online. They've also provided some great accompanying material, including information on food and drink in the 'World of Domesday' feature.

2006-08-03T23:30:00.000Z

'New research indicates Johnson gave up on his dictionary' by Maev Kennedy. The Guardian, 3 August 2006.

Good to know that even Johnson struggled with his deadlines.

2006-08-02T23:32:00.000Z

Creative connections between Hardy and Ibsen by Paul Binding. Times Literary Supplement, 2 August 2006.

2006-07-15T23:36:00.000Z

"In the past three decades, which magazines have made a substantial mark, a difference, a contribution?"

'Poésie sans frontières' by Michael Schmidt. The Guardian, 15 July 2006.

2006-07-15T23:34:00.000Z

'Chilling mystery of Kelvingrove's secret signed Hitler photo' by Anna Miller. The Scotsman, 15 July 2006.

2006-06-24T23:39:00.000Z

'Not Yet My Mother' by Owen Sheers. The Guardian, 24 June 2006.

2006-06-17T23:40:00.000Z

'A Rose Tree' by Fleur Adcock. The Guardian, 17 June 2006.

2006-05-31T23:41:00.000Z

Researching Cruikshank's series of cartoons, The Bottle and The Drunkard's Children, I came across this great site about Magic Lantern slides. Fantastic.

2006-05-25T23:43:00.000Z

Have just discovered the city daily photoblogs, including:
Paris Daily Photo Blog, Edinburgh Daily Photo Blog and, of course, London Daily Photo Blog.

Through this last, I have discovered Pigeon Blog and some March of the Penguins links, including the March of the Penguins game.

2006-05-16T23:47:00.000Z

Finally caught the Americans in Paris exhibition at the National Gallery. Generally very impressive, though I was disappointed in the Mary Casatt paintings, having previously been very taken with her prints.

2006-05-16T23:45:00.000Z

Thinking of joining the English Speaking Union, after seeing Dartmouth House and the impressive Page Memorial Library.

2006-05-14T00:00:00.000Z

Mina Loy links

poets.org entry.

'Mina Loy feature'. Jacket5, October 1988.

Becoming Mina Loy website.

Lunar Baedecker by Mina Loy (.doc file)

2006-05-13T23:51:00.000Z

'Tarzan Workshop'. Jacket 30, July 2006.

2006-05-13T23:49:00.000Z

'Pressed for time' by Jim Gilchrist. The Scotsman, 12 May 2006.
"ON 4 APRIL, 1508, ... The Complaint of the Black Knight or The Mayng or Disport of Chaucer was the first book known to have been printed in Scotland.

The quincentenary of that first publication from a Scottish press is almost two years away, but on the 30th of this month, at the National Library of Scotland, a rolling programme of celebratory events for 2008 will be announced ..."

2006-05-10T00:02:00.000Z

‘Feedback from James Joyce’s submission of Ulysses to his creative writing workshop’ by Teddy Wayne. McSweeney’s, 9 May 2006.

2006-05-07T00:04:00.001Z

Rilke's 'The Song of the Sea'. (First Science Poem of the Week).

2006-05-07T00:04:00.000Z

'The Peace of Wild Things' by Wendell Berry. Poetry Foundation (pdf).

2006-05-06T00:10:00.000Z

History, Sun, And Fresh Air: Museums With Parks And Gardens (Untold London).

Discover London Trails (24 hour museum), including Historic Gardens Museum Trail and Bright Lights and City Squares.

RSA Anniversary Treasure Trail. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Ethnomedica: Remembered Remedies - Researching the Herbal Traditions of Britain.

2006-05-06T00:06:00.000Z

Boop Reads a Folk Tale (Cute Overload)

The Beatrix Potter Collections (V&A).

The Illustrators Project: Helen Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) (University of Pittsburgh).

Peter Rabbit and Friends

2006-05-04T00:12:00.000Z

'Drowsing over The Arabian Nights' by John Kinsella on Poets.org

2006-05-03T00:22:00.001Z

'Web 2.0: a new generation of services' by Phil Bradley. Update, May 2006.

2006-05-03T00:22:00.000Z

'Poetry in Practice: Creative Flow' by Mark McGuinness. Magma 34. (Edited online version).

2006-05-03T00:14:00.001Z

'Atlantis: a Lost Sonnet' by Eavan Boland. The New Republic, 8 March 2006.

2006-05-03T00:14:00.000Z

'Heart, My Box of Snow' by Rebecca Hoogs. Poetry, May 2006.

2006-05-03T00:12:00.000Z

'Thou Shalt Want Want Want' by Jen Hadfield. Poetry International, 1 May 2006.

2006-02-19T01:26:00.000Z

What Women Want is the latest exhibition at the Women's Library. Exhibits are arranged to cover the areas of pleaseure, home life, work, security, independence and equality.

2006-02-16T01:29:00.000Z

Dick Bruna is being honoured with a museum for his work in his hometown of Utrecht. Dick Bruna Huis opens on Saturday 18 February. More in today's Guardian. Miffy fun on the official Dick Bruna site and Noggin.

2006-02-12T01:31:00.000Z

Spent most of this week on business in Bremen, where I was delighted to see the statue of the famous musicians.

Sur la Lune Fairy Tales includes the tale and illustrations by Walter Crane and Arthur Rackham.

The Bremen Tourism site has pictures and the 1847 version of the tale.

Brementown Musicians includes an interactive tale and game.

2006-02-01T01:33:00.000Z

Monsterous Fish: a most strange and true report of a monsterous fish, who appeared in the forme of a woman, from her waste upwards on the National Library of Wales website.

2006-01-30T01:35:00.000Z

Mappa Mundi (Hereford Catherdral website)

Mappa Mundi (Hereford Web Pages)

Making a Mappamundi: the Hereford map by Scott D. Westrem

Mappa Mundi: a medieval look at time and place by Peg Meier

2006-01-27T01:37:00.000Z

The 2006 edition of Poems on the Underground is launched today. Transport for London offers a random poem for the day and an online archive.

2006-01-16T01:38:00.000Z

Penguin Most Wanted includes a history of crime novels published by Penguin: 'Green is the colour' by Beverley Cousins.

2006-01-14T01:39:00.000Z

Michael Bond is eighty today. The BBC website includes a videoclip of his appearance at Paddington Station, and a magazine article and slide show, 'Elevenses with Mr Paddington.'

2006-01-12T01:41:00.000Z

Rupert Bear is being restyled for TV. Meanwhile, he has been nominated as a style icon - vote here. The official website includes annual covers for 1936-2005. A brief history is online at Teddy Bear UK.

2006-01-11T01:42:00.000Z

The latest stamp issue from the Royal Mail is the Animal Tales Collection of storybook characters. Of course, Paddington is 1st class..

2006-01-10T01:44:00.000Z

Bestiary in Medieval Illumination is just one of the virtual exhibitions on the website of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Some of the pages have been translated into English.

2006-01-08T01:45:00.000Z

Travels into several remote nations of the World by Lemuel Gulliver is Glasgow University's book of the month.

2006-01-07T01:47:00.000Z

'Rooms with a View: Landscape & Wallpaper' by Michel Leight.The City Review, 7 July 2001.

Theory and Practice: Late Victorian Wallpaper by John Burrows.

'Wallpaper' by Barbara Krasner-Khait. History Magazine, Oct-Nov 2001.

2006-01-04T01:48:00.000Z

Turning the Pages at the Wellcome Trust includes the Wellcome Apocalypse (c.1420-30), Nujum al-'Ulum (Stars of Sciences) and On Cutaneous Diseases by Robert Willan (London, 1808).

Meanwhile, the National Library of Medicine's Turning the Pages Online includes Conrad Gesner’s Historiae Animalium (Studies on Animals), Ambroise Paré’s Oeuvres, Andreas Vesalius's De Humani Corporis Fabrica and Johannes de Ketham's Fasiculo de Medicina

2006-01-02T01:49:00.000Z

Saint Michael triumphant over the Devil is the National Gallery's Painting of the Month.

2005-11-12T01:53:00.000Z

'ITV calls in Jane Austen to halt slide in ratings' by Owen Gibson. The Guardian, 11 November 2005.

A special Jane Austen Season will include Mansefield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Emma.

2005-09-19T20:31:00.000Z

Looking around for pictures of Saint Paul, I came across this beautiful online edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle at the Morse Library, Beloit College.

2005-09-13T20:29:00.000Z

As the release of the new film version of Pride and Prejudice approaches, the BBC has gone bonkers for its 1995 extravaganza - reshowing it on BBC4 with a documentary in the Drama Connections series on BBC1 - plus a spruced up 'Behind the scenes' section on the website, including clips from the series and, fittingly enough, behind the scenes. Hoorah!

2005-09-10T20:27:00.000Z

Sir John Soane was born today in 1753 in Goring, Oxfordshire. Most famous today for his museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, he was Surveyor and Architect of the Bank of England for 45 years, from 1788, and Architect of the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

2005-09-10T01:00:00.000Z

The British Library has released an image of the original "obituary," of the Ashes from the Sporting Times, 2 September 1882, "In affectionate remembrance of English Cricket, which died at the Oval, on 29th August 1882, deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P. N.B - The body will be cremated and the ashes taken back to Australia." This marked the first time England had been defeated at home.

2005-09-08T00:58:00.000Z

The Green Cross Code hedgehogs have their own site, with games, and screensavers and collectable virtual cards.

2005-09-05T00:56:00.000Z

Book and Magazine Collector updates the estimates for early editions of Austen in their October issue. They're still talking iro £30,000 - £50,000 for an original set of Sense and Sensibility and £40,000 - £50,000 for Pride and Prejudice, but Mansefield Park is creeping up iro £30,000 - £40,000. (Of course the top figure is always hedged with a "+"). One day ...

2005-09-04T00:55:00.000Z

An article in today's Guardian discusses the ongoing tourist industry based on Jane Austen, her life and works. Includes a brief list of places to visit:
'A literary sensibility that makes solid financial sense' by Steven Morris. Guardian, Saturday 3 September 2005.

2005-08-30T20:32:00.000Z

Christie-themed hangman on her new-look official site.

2005-08-28T20:33:00.000Z

Online at the Ashmolean - pictures from an exhibition in 2003, in which monks created the Tibetan Sand Mandala of Chenrezi.

2005-08-26T20:34:00.000Z

Revolting Librarians: cult underground collection from 1972.

2005-08-25T20:36:00.000Z

"A public library in Holland has been swamped with queries after unveiling plans to "lend out" living people, including homosexuals, drug addicts, asylum seekers, gipsies and the physically handicapped.

The volunteers will be borrowed by users of the library, in Almelo, who can take them to a cafeteria, and ask them any questions they like for up to an hour, in a scheme designed to break down barriers and combat prejudice.

Under the scheme, photographs and short biographies of the volunteers will appear in the library, and on its website. Library users who wish to take a person out can apply for an appointment. Mr Krol said he had not cleared the scheme with his municipal bosses." ('Library that lets you take out people who are left on the shelf' by David Rennie. The Daily Telegraph, 25 August 2005).

2005-08-22T20:38:00.000Z

A gallery of very unfair but childishly funny portraits on the newly-established Parameter Magazine website.

2005-08-21T20:39:00.000Z

The Scots Magazine's online presence includes this fun introduction to the Scots tongue.

2005-08-20T20:39:00.000Z

I love my Library Action Figure, with her navy blue suit, pile of books and sushing action. And I'm not alone: she's so popular that they've brought out a "Deluxe" model "dressed in a stylish burgundy outfit and comes in a library diorama with a reference desk, computer, book cart, multiple book stacks and some loose books, including a tiny plastic replica of Nancy's latest, Book Lust 2."

2005-08-18T20:41:00.000Z

'Prohibition in Washington DC, 1917-1934.'

2005-08-04T20:42:00.000Z

The Hunterian is displaying work by Jessie M King. The exhibition runs till 29 October

2005-08-03T20:44:00.000Z

The McLellan Galleries are exhibiting some newly-acquired works by Marianne Grant, an artist who survived the Holocaust, drawing sketches whenever she could lay hands on materials to do so.

2005-07-08T20:46:00.000Z

The highlight of this year's Hampton Court for me was Paddington's Marmalade Garden:

RHS coverage

2005-06-04T20:48:00.000Z

As part of Miffy's birthday celebrations, the wonderful Dick Bruna signed books at Waterstones Piccadilly. I still can't believe I actually saw him sign my books!

2005-05-15T20:50:00.000Z

"The second Holyrood Poetry Link scheme aims to celebrate the vibrancy of contemporary Scottish poetry, whilst providing an opportunity for Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) to demonstrate their support for the arts.

Poets and MSPs met to explore issues of mutual interest and agree a theme or themes on which the poet would write." (Introduction to the project). The poems are on the Scottish Poetry Library website.

2005-05-14T20:52:00.000Z

August Strindberg: Painter, Photographer, Writer:

"Strindberg distrusted the glass lens of the camera: he felt that it distorted the truth. So he built his own pinhole camera, his Wunderkamera, which functioned without a lens." (Exhibition commentary).

2005-05-12T20:54:00.000Z

"The gods, they say, give breath, and they take it away. But the same could be said - could it not? - of the humble comma. Add it to the present clause, and, of a sudden, the mind is, quite literally, given pause to think; take it out if you wish or forget it and the mind is deprived of a resting place. Yet still the comma gets no respect. It seems just a slip of a thing, a pedant's tick, a blip on the edge of our consciousness, a kid of printer's smudge almost. Small, we claim, is beautiful (especially in the age of the microchip). Yet what is so often used, and so rarely recalled, as the comma - unless it be breath itself?" -- Pico Iyer, 'In Praise of the Humble Comma,' In Short edited by Judith Kitchen and Mary Paumier Jones. Norton, 1996.