Tag Archives: England

Classic Car Books: “Healey – The Men & The Machines”

Healey The Men & The Machines John Nikas January 2020“Nikas combines extensive research into a previously unavailable and highly detailed archive of Donald Healey’s personal records with the author’s masterful ability to weave together an amazing level of detail while making it an eminently readable story. The result is a book that both seasoned automotive historians and anyone with an interest in the story of a life well lived will enjoy. Until you’ve read this book, you don’t know the true story of Donald Healey and his cars”
(Reid Trummel, Editor in Chief, Healey Marque)

Written in collaboration with Gerry Coker, the designer responsible for the iconic Austin-Healey 100 and Sprite, this volume represents the most complete account ever of the sports cars built at Warwick, Longbridge, Abingdon and West Bromwich. With unprecedented access to Donald and Geoffrey Healey’s private papers, diaries, scrapbooks and photo albums, corporate and financial records from BMC, Donald Healey Motor Company and Healey Automobile Consultants, the files of Jensen Motors and Nash-Kelvinator, dozens of personal interviews and exhaustive research into previously unavailable primary source material, this book provides a thorough account of the true story behind these automobiles and the individuals who created them.

To read more and/or purchase

Best Design & Food: “KILN” Thai Restaurant, London (Dan Preston LTD)

From a Spectator Life online article:

KILN Soho London Thai Restaurant Designed by Dan Preston LTDWith just four tables, a few counter seats and no reservations, getting a spot at Kiln can be a challenge. But it is one that is absolutely worth the wait.

Chosen as the UK’s Best Restaurant in the 2018 National Restaurant Awards, this Soho hotspot specialises in a roadside barbeque style of Thai cooking. The kiln it is named after is the hulking stove which dominates the restaurant. On it sits countless rustic claypots from which wafts a tempting mix of palm sugar, sweet basil and hot charcoal.The 22 seats along the steel counter are the best in the house, as you can watch the chefs scrupulously chopping, flipping and searing ingredients – most of which have been picked or caught just a few hours before.

Dan Preston LTD Design Studio London
http://www.danpreston.co.uk/

At less than £7, the baked glass noodles with Tamworth pork belly and brown crab meat is probably the best value dish in London.

To read more: https://life.spectator.co.uk/articles/the-five-best-thai-restaurants-in-london/

Architects: Stanton Williams’ “Fitzroy Park House” Best English Home 2019 (Modern House)

From a The Modern House online article:

 Fitzroy Park, London N6
Stanton Williams Fitzroy Park House London interior 2019A stunning 6,200 sq ft space, this remarkable and sprawling house rises up through its surrounding landscaped gardens. Described by the Architects’ Journal as having a “beguilingly cave-like relationship to the outside world”, it is a bold vision of contemporary architecture in which the natural world has been thoroughly entwined with the design.

https://www.stantonwilliams.com/projects/fitzroy-park/

Stanton Williams Architects LogoRecline by the pool, listen to the artificial stream winding its way through the gardens, meander across the footbridge: this home was conceived for those long, dreamy summer days.

Stanton Williams Fitzroy Park House London sketch 2019

The Modern House logo

To read more: https://www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/fitzroy-park/

British Politics: “How Boris Johnson Won The 2019 General Election” (Telegraph Video)

Boris Johnson has won historic landslide victory today for the Conservatives in the 2019 General Election. On a catastrophic night for Labour, Jeremy Corbyn’s party was predicted to end the day with just 196 seats, down 66 on the last election in their worst result since 1935.

Interviews: 84-Year Old British Architect Norman Foster On His First High-Tech Building (Video)

“High-tech is something to do with the expression of the technology – the means by which the building stands,” the award-winning architect told Dezeen in an exclusive interview at his London practice.

Dezeen Video InterviewsBritish architect Norman Foster reflects on his first high-tech building and how it shaped offices to come, in this exclusive video produced by Dezeen. Named after the electronics manufacturer that commissioned the building,

Reliance Controls was an industrial facility located in Swindon in Southwest England. Completed in 1967, the building was the last to be designed by Team 4, an architecture practice comprising Foster, Richard Rogers, Su Brumwell and Wendy Cheesman, before the group disbanded. The single-storey rectangular shed, which was designed to house the company’s factory and offices, was one of the first buildings labelled as high-tech – a style of architecture that Foster defines as a celebration of a building’s functional components.

Reliance Controls was the first building to dissolve the traditional boundaries between factory workers and office workers. “There was only a glass screen that would separate the assembly line for electronics from those who are managing the sales force,” said Foster. “They would all share the same kitchen and dining facilities, the same bathrooms. That we take for granted now but at that time it was it was really revolutionary – unheard of.”

Website: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/12/13/norman-foster-reliance-controls-video-interview/

Top New Podcasts: “The History Of Coffee” And Its Social Impact (BBC Radio)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history and social impact of coffee. From its origins in Ethiopia, coffea arabica spread through the Ottoman Empire before reaching Western Europe where, in the 17th century, coffee houses were becoming established.

There, caffeinated customers stayed awake for longer and were more animated, and this helped to spread ideas and influence culture. Coffee became a colonial product, grown by slaves or indentured labour, with coffea robusta replacing arabica where disease had struck, and was traded extensively by the Dutch and French empires; by the 19th century, Brazil had developed into a major coffee producer, meeting demand in the USA that had grown on the waggon trails.

With

Judith Hawley
Professor of 18th Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London

Markman Ellis
Professor of 18th Century Studies at Queen Mary University of London

And

Jonathan Morris
Professor in Modern History at the University of Hertfordshire

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000c4x1

Economics & Finance: “Economics For People” With Cambridge Author & Professor Ha-Joon Chang (New INET Video Series)

Economics For People With Ha-Joon Chang Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) Cambridge UniversityIn the new series “Economics For People” from the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), University of Cambridge economist and bestselling author Ha-Joon Chang explains key concepts in economics, empowering anyone to hold their government, society, and economy accountable.

 

Lecture 1.1: The Nature of Economics

Lecture 1.2: Five Reasons Why Economics Is Political

Lecture 2: What Is Wrong With Globalization?

To view more videos: https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/videos/economics-for-people

New Art History Books: “Feast & Fast – The Art Of Food In Europe 1500-1800”

Feast and Fast The Art of Food in Europe 1500-1800Food defines us as individuals, communities, and nations – we are what we eat and, equally, what we don’t eat. When, where, why, how and with whom we eat are crucial to our identity. Feast and Fast presents novel approaches to understanding the history and culture of food and eating in early modern Europe.

This richly illustrated book will showcase hidden and newly-conserved treasures from the Fitzwilliam Museum and other collections in and around Cambridge. It will tease out many contemporary and controversial issues – such as the origins of food and food security, overconsumption in times of austerity, and our relationship with animals and nature – through short research-led entries by some of the world’s leading cultural and food historians.

Feast and Fast explores food-related objects, images, and texts from the past in innovative ways and encourages us to rethink our evolving relationship with food.

To read more and purchase:

Innovative Homes: Faye Toogood’s “Beguiling” Design For Cube Haus Architects, London

From the Cube Haus Architects website:

Faye Toogood Design for Cube Haus ArchitectsMost notable is Toogood’s sensitive approach to materials. She offers two different, equally alluring solutions to the exterior cladding and the internal finishes. Both external cladding options, raw galvanised steel and dark charred timber, are suggestive of industrial or agricultural structures, making it something of a thrill to see them in a domestic setting. The building clad in raw galvanised steel will have a refined, cream-coloured interior, whilst the structure clad in dark charred timber will have an exposed plywood interior finish.

Faye Toogood’s beguiling design for Cube Haus Commissions proposes a sanctuary that suits both rural and urban contexts. With a simple pitched-roof, single-storey form, it evokes the sort of ordinary, often-ignored buildings that have been built across Britain for centuries. But this being the work of Toogood, a revered designer across multiple disciplines, the scheme that she has created is far from being artless.

Website: https://www.cube-haus.co.uk/project/faye-toogood

Animated Movie Nostalgia: “Animal Farm” (1954) Directed By John Halas & Joy Batchelor

From a Christie’s online article:

Christie's LondonShortly after George Orwell’s death in 1950, his widow Sonia was visited in London by two representatives of the American film producer, Louis de Rochemont. They sought the rights to Orwell’s novel from five years earlier, Animal Farm. It’s said Sonia took some convincing but eventually agreed, on the promise that de Rochemont would introduce her to her hero, Clark Gable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4egC00K7Dg

Animal Farm Movie 1954A conventional, live-action adaptation was out of the question given that the book’s main characters were farmyard animals, so an animated movie was decided upon instead. De Rochemont chose to have it made in the UK rather than the US — partly because of lower production costs, partly because he admired the work of British husband-and-wife duo John Halas and Joy Batchelor, a couple who ran their own animation studio and had produced several propaganda films for the British government during the Second World War.

Their adaptation of Animal Farm  was released in 1954, to popular and critical acclaim — the first feature-length animation movie ever made in the UK.

To read more: https://www.christies.com/features/Christies-to-auction-animation-still-from-Animal-Farm-10225-1.aspx?sc_lang=en&cid=EM_EMLcontent04144B00C_1&cid=DM354813&bid=199616411#FID-10225