Hello all. I apologise for lack of proper post this week. However, if you have received this as normal, please let me know, as I understand some people haven't been getting the posts. If you've already let me know, don't bother to do it again. Also, make sure...
On Tuesday, our Prime Minister sent a letter to the European Union, triggering Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, and thus applying for the UK to leave the EU. I am unashamedly horrified by this, and would like to ask any of my nice readers...
I apologise for not providing a proper post this week; it has felt busier than usual in various different ways. All I have to offer is: a political thought: many people feel (post Brexit referendum) that any referendum instituting major constitutional change should set the bar higher...
My father died at the age of 57 (when I was 26) and my mother at the age of 89. My in-laws also lived to ripe old ages. So I can say that I have experienced bereavement, but not in its sharpest forms – sudden...
A problem that I don’t think film-makers fully appreciate is the difficulty, occasionally, of telling characters apart. If one is a Dalek and one is a Victorian lady, there is no problem, but if both are humans of the same gender and similar age (and...
Almost by chance (thank you Facebook, and my cousin Helen) I learned that last Sunday was Visit My Mosque Day. In February 2016 80 British mosques opened their doors to visitors; this year it was 150. Oddly none of the mosques in Nottingham took part,...
One of the most telling memes on Facebook in the last few months has been a picture of a row of history books or chronicles: 2014, 2015, We Don’t Talk About This One, 2017, 2018…. For many people, 2016 would be a nice year to forget,...
I would like to write a few words about Nahum Tate (1652-1715). The Wikipedia article on him provides some fascinating facts. However, according to this, he is best known for his 1681 adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. This raises an interesting point about the meaning of fame. Adapting...
In November 2015 I established this website, and on 19th November I posted the first entry in this blog (https://www.penelopewallace.com/introduction/ ). In it I listed the purposes of the blog as follows: Publicising my work. If you have already viewed the rest of the site (if...
In a previous blog post/rant about the busyness of Christmas (https://www.penelopewallace.com/christmas-busy-ness/), I said this: “Most bought Advent calendars are a consumerist tacky nightmare, but that is a completely different rant.” Today I’ve decided to write that rant. This may offend… What is an Advent calendar? Basically, it’s surely...