In 1965, James Baldwin, by then internationally famous, faced off against William F. Buckley Jr., one of the leading voices of American conservatism, in a debate hosted by the Cambridge Union in England. The debate proposition before the house was: “The American dream is at the expense of the American Negro.”
Nicholas Buccola’s “The Fire Is Upon Us” tells the story of that intellectual prizefight as well as the larger story of Buckley’s and Baldwin’s lives.
From a Country Life online article:
First published in 1897, Country Life is itself a late-Victorian institution. What could be more appropriate, therefore, than to celebrate this anniversary with a collector’s issue of articles and photographs from the magazine’s archives?
An opening timeline offers an overview of the Victorian Age, but the focus of what follows is exclusively architectural. The coverage of country houses has always been central to the magazine, but it can also claim to have been a pioneer in the study of Victorian architecture through the work of two former Architectural Editors, Mark Girouard and Michael Hall.
This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, respectively in May and August, 1819. Their marriage 21 years later in 1840 was long arranged and, after a difficult beginning, grew to be unexpectedly happy. With perfect symmetry, it lasted 21 years, until Prince Albert’s early death in 1861.
During that time, the couple established a completely new mode of Royal Family life and redefined the role of Britain’s constitutional monarchy. All of this happened as Britain developed at an astonishing speed into the most powerful nation in the world. When the Queen died in 1901, there was no question that a remarkable age of British history had come to a close.
Read more at https://www.countrylife.co.uk/news/focus-greatest-victorian-houses-britain-featu:red-magnificent-one-off-magazine-207774#cLqLhWZ6ouDLuAM1.99
From a AutoCar online article:
The van is new from the ground up, sitting on a new modular platform and featuring a 60kWh lithium ion powertrain said to endow it with a “power-to-weight efficiency that fully maximises the range of the vehicle”. It can fast charge to 80% in 30 minutes.
Morris Commercial ranks it alongside the Mini, Morris Minor and Land Rover Defender as a “truly iconic post-war British automotive design”.
Revived thanks to unnamed UK and European financial backing, Morris Commercial’s first production model since the 1960s has a 200-mile range, a 1000kg payload and a 2.5-tonne gross weight.
Company website: https://www.morris-commercial.com/
It’ll be priced from £60,000 and set to be built in the UK at an undisclosed location, with the design an engineering taking place in a facility in Worcestershire.
From a Gentleman’s Journal online article:
I was involved from start to finish — with the concepting, design and specification of the car. I worked incredibly closely with the JLR team to get the exact design I envisaged. And every one of those decisions was carefully considered; from wheels and engine, to brakes, interior and suspension. We uprated the engine to 225bhp, and added better cooling. The car was changed to right hand drive, given fully adjustable suspension, better brakes, a fast-shift gearbox and bespoke interior. In all, 2,700 man hours were put into restoring it.
David Gandy wears many hats. He wears his model hat. He wears his director’s hat. He wears his creative hat. Here, in fact, he’s wearing a rather nice herringbone flat cap. But we’re mostly interested, as he rolls up in his meticulous vintage Jaguar XK120, in his latest passion project — and his car restoration hat.
When Gandy, who has raced Jaguars twice in the historic Mille Miglia, decided to run a third time, he dreamt up the idea of building a one-off pre-1957 XK120 for the race. Based on the ‘lightweight’ racing versions of the 1950s and 60s, the plan was to find a car, perfectly restore it and tune it up into competitive condition in just six months. Unsurprisingly, with hat firmly on head, that’s exactly what Gandy did.
To read more: https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/david-gandy-explains-how-he-restored-his-dream-jaguar-xk120/
From a Cotswold Life online interview/review:
“I suppose I started off with a fairly literal view of the world,” he says. “But, quite early on, it became clear to me that there was much more going on than simply the picture I was seeing; that the natural world had an agenda of its own; that it was going to live out life, regardless of how we viewed it and how we used it; and, indeed, regardless of the fancy metaphors that we used.”
Oh my goodness. Where to begin?
I could start with the ‘Praying Beech’ – a tree whose (‘whose’? The human possessive feels simultaneously wrong and yet just right) two branch stubs clasped each other like hands. Once, when the rain fell in an apocalyptic burst, Richard Mabey watched its bark melt in front of his eyes. It was, of course, no stranger to extremes of weather: one summer past, the tree had been split by lightning, bees hunkering down in its newly-created hollows. Sometime later, a storm had toppled it, leaving fungi free to colonise its delicious surfaces: knobbly coral spots; dead man’s fingers rising corpse-like from the tree’s own rot; white porcelain tufts, like Royal Worcester plates awaiting a delicate slice of egg-yellow sponge.
Filmed and Directed by: Petr Krejčí
A film commissioned by Goldsmith’s Compay for Goldsmith’s Fair 2019. This year’s theme was about collecting and collectors.
Goldsmiths’ Fair is recognised internationally as the premier UK showcase for contemporary jewellery and silver.
Each year, this unique event draws collectors, design lovers and luxury shoppers to the magnificent Goldsmiths’ Hall where they can browse the latest collections from this handpicked selection of craftsmen and women.
Website: https://www.goldsmithsfair.co.uk/
From a Classic Driver online article:
Titled Trinity: B.A.T. 5-7-9 and poised to take place at Phillips Berkeley Square on 20–23 November 2019, the exhibition will highlight B.A.T. 5, 7 and 9s’ visionary aesthetics in addition to their significance in the wider context of 20th-century art, architecture and design.
Designed for Bertone by the supremely talented Franco Scaglione in the 1950s, the Alfa Romeo-based Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica concept cars are seminal objects of 20th-century design. Widely known as the B.A.T. cars, the trio of audacious, ultra-aerodynamic and fully functional prototypes pushed the boundaries of automotive design like nothing that had come before and truly embodied avant-garde creativity.
Filmed, Edited and Directed by: Alex William Helin
Albion, another name for the island of Great Britain, is a journey through foggy English countryside via rocky limestone scenery to Scottish highlands.
Music: Aeons 2 by Mark Petrie/ Andrew Phralow
Website: https://www.awhelinphotography.com/
From a The Modern House online article:
Away from the city, Roger escapes to his home near Poole, Dorset for what he calls an ‘analogue retreat’. To hear Roger talk about the inspirations behind the building, which resembles an up-turned boat and which is both eccentric and serene, fun and functional…
For the final instalment in this batch of our Masters of Design series, we’re paying a visit to architect Roger Zogolovitch’s boat-inspired house near Poole, Dorset – the recipient of two RIBA awards and a paragon in split-level living. Watch the film here.
Roger is the founder and creative director of Solidspace, an independent developer focused on unearthing the potential of backland gap sites rarely noticed by mainstream housebuilders. By skillfully utilising overlooked sites in the urban environment – adjacent to railroads or between and above office buildings, for instance – Roger proposes intelligent design solutions to the challenges of providing enough homes for a growing population.
From The Mayfair Musings:
I describe myself as an urban-based painter who is interested in green spaces. Painting and drawing have been seen as profoundly unfashionable for most of my working life, and I have felt sometimes that it was quite eccentric to be a figurative painter with conventional subject matter. Looking back, my insistence on maintaining my practice as a figurative painter now seems more radical than conventional.
Browse & Darby have announced that Personal Geographies will arrive in October, the second solo exhibition by esteemed British painter, Eileen Hogan. Hogan’s principal subject is gardens, or more specifically, enclosed green spaces. The beautiful works that will be shown in Personal Geographies have travelled all the way from the US, where they formed part of the artist’s recent exhibition at the Yale Centre for British Art.
I was very blessed to have the opportunity to catch up with Hogan ahead of her Mayfair exhibition. I find myself entranced by her vibrant paintings that are dense with detail, filling the canvas from edge to edge with layers upon layers of paint. She has also established portraiture practice, her commissions including HRH The Prince of Wales. In a unique style, Hogan paints her sitters whilst they are deep in conversation, capturing unguarded gestures and expressions to create intricate portraits of both honesty and intimacy.
To read more: https://www.themayfairmusings.com/home/10-questions-with-eileen-hogan
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