I first read ‘Exploration Fawcett’ when I was about 18 (I’m now 60) and it made a deep impression on me. The story of a ramrod-straight, tall army officer with a big moustache and his young companions, including the improbably named Raleigh Rimmel exploring the wildernesses of South America was unbearably romantic for a callow … Continue reading The Lost City of Z

It has to be said that Paul Verhoeven has form – this after all is the man who directed Basic Instinct (and what school-boy doesn’t remember Sharon Stone’s beaver shot?), Showgirls (widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made) , Robocop, Total Recall and Black Book (good film). Elle is his latest film … Continue reading Elle

Photographs taken on a trip to Budapest with my daughter Rachel in March 2017. In the Jewish Museum of the Great Synagogue. Lovers by the Chain Bridge. Stalin's boots at Memento Park.   Tourists at Fishermen's Bastion. Koller Gallery sculpture garden. By the Presidential Palace.  Rachel being silly at Memento Park.  Memento Park. 'Shoes on … Continue reading Budapest

One is familiar with the classic images and stories of the black struggle in America in the '60s - Martin Luther King, Rosa Parkes and the bus protests, Black Power salutes, riots, Emmet Till - but Hidden Figures reminds us that the black experience in America touched every part of life in ways that still … Continue reading Hidden Figures