Eric Ravilious – Drawn to War is the first feature-length film about Eric Ravilious (1903-1942), the much-loved but hugely underestimated British Official War artist, killed in a plane crash over Iceland in 1942. Written by Alan Bennett and Robert Macfarlane, ‘Eric Ravilious – Drawn to War’ recounts a life as compelling and enigmatic as his art,…
Camboglanna, The Crooked Glen
Of the many places associated with King Arthur, Cornish Tintagel or Glastonbury Tor spring to mind. But what these places lack in archaeological evidence is compensated by fiction and the lure of the tourist pound (250,000 visitors pay to enter Tintagel Castle annually.) Cumbria also has its fair share of sites affiliated with the name…
Lorna Graves’ Landscape
I sleep in the valley by the river. I work with clay, sitting with my feet in the water. I wonder in the hills above the Eden Valley and rest in a sheepfold sheltered from the wind.Lorna Graves Discovering the art of Lorna Graves was like falling through a portal into a subterranean world. Gateways…
Sea to the West – Blinded by Dazzle
By the mid-1970s my natural playground was the slagged cliffs and green-slimed rocks of Workington beach. There was a rent in the cliffs that let you down over the edge, sliding steeply towards a hole in the cliff face and clamber down through a cave that stank of algae and piss, out onto the coal-jewelled…
Anna Meridith – Nautilus
Described by Pitchfork as one of the most innovative voices in British music, Anna Meredith MBE is a genre-crossing composer and producer whose work straddles the worlds of contemporary classical, art pop, electronica and experimental rock Composer, producer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music, Meredith’s sound is frequently described as ‘uncategorisable’ and ‘genre-defying’…
Cacophony – Art in Music
Art Galleries render a cacophony of space in which to display visual pleasure. Their silence hangs in the air like a vast sail and permeates peaceful contemplation of the pigments and pastels on display. Just the barely audible murmur of appreciation or apprehension interrupts the seeing. Only the hush of a draped coat, a chair…
Thirlwall Castle and Greenhead
GREENHEAD, a village, and a chapelry in Haltwhistle parish. The village stands on the Tippal burn, adjacent to the Carlisle and Newcastle railway, near the Roman wall, and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Carlisle. The chapelry is annexed to the vicarage of Haltwhistle, in the diocese of Durham; to…
Lockdown of Literary Monsters
The long winter lockdown months led to many pages being turned. Maybe the time of year, with thoughts of spring and rejuvenation influenced my choice of books. All four had familiar themes; a quest for knowledge, mystery, macabre, and demons. It was a lockdown of literary monsters. Monster is too strong a word for these…
Walton Wood Cottage No.1
October half-term. A long-planned visit to Edinburgh, staying in the Community Hall of Well Court, part of Edinburgh World Heritage Dean Court. These apartments were built in 1886 as a model housing development for artisans and worker families employed by the many mills that dipped their wheels in the Water of Leith. The Water of…
Cumbrian Gods – Cocidius
A sullen sky hung over the land. The mountains had wrung most of the moisture from the clouds, but what little remained now fell on Scaleby. I met the Walkers are Welcome group at Crosby-on-Eden, but we would give Scaleby Castle a miss. Built by Robert de Tilliol in 1307, on land granted by Edward…
Carlisle’s Roman Bathhouse Dig
Good news at last for Carlisle Cricket Club. A £5,000 Lottery grant will kick-start repairs to flood damage created by February’s Storm Ciara. Five years earlier, Storm Desmond flooded the Edenside cricket ground, but that natural catastrophe created a chain of events that led to the discovery of the 1600-year-old Carlisle Roman Bathhouse. But with…
Jacob Polley and a Jar of Honey
Back in those heady days of 2009, with the news dominated by bankers’ bonuses and MP’s expenses, the BBC launched a campaign to let poetry into our lives. On 28th January that year, BBC Director-General Mark Thompson announced a deeper commitment to arts and music on the BBC, with a range of initiatives to support…