For those who like light reading and stories and general folklore about a place, in this case, Hampton Court Palace (and to some extent the surrounding area), then look no further than this small square book (which is actually smaller than A5). Strange Tales of Hampton Court is a fantastic collection of 34 tales, compiled by Sheila Dunn, that can be read within 2 hours and has pen and ink illustrations by Ken Wilson.

The tales range from: what happened to Henry VIII’s fifth wife Catherine Howard, to the legend of King Henry VIII’s astronomical clock to descriptions of the feasts and pagaentry that Elizabeth I had at the palace to how squatters managed to live there to how the ghost of Sibbell Penn, an old nurse who took care of Jane Seymor’s son Edward VI (who died as an infant) and Elizabeth I, has been seen at the palace many times and why.

Some of my favourite tales also include how Elizabeth Cromwell (the wife of Puritan Oliver Cromwell), who lived there and was born of wealthy land-owning parents hid treasures to preserve them from destruction by Puritans to how ladies took up a habit of “fainting” at church on Sunday so that they could be taken care of by Sir Horace Seymour, a knight of the Guelphic order, who would carry a lady out of the service and then have one of his maids tend to her at his apartment at Court. After this became a regular routine for several weeks,  another lady, however, got sick of this “fashion of fainting” and had the chaplain write a note saying that any lady who fainted would now instead be carried out by the dustman. Of course, after this, the fainting stopped.

Such guiless historical stories written with humour and facts, told in an easy-to-understand, but mature style, make this a fun read – and very helpful if you are going to visit the palace any time soon. Worth getting. Retail price is low and you can probably get it for even less online and second-hand.

Further information:
Hampton Court Palace (official site)

For those who would like to read about the various “wee” people of Britain (and Ireland), then look no further for a delightful “illustrated guide to goblins, ghosts, faeries, pixies and monsters”. Spanning 139 pages of content, with beautiful illustrations by Elizabeth, this is an easy and light read that is well-researched. Andrews’ illustrations of the many different folk races and creatures are delicate and compliment her simple storytelling manner.

The way she writes allows for adults who would like a quick read of the folklore of a certain area, as well as children, to both enjoy the legends and this book as a whole. The pages are also thick, semi-gloss paper which is a really nice texture and layout for a book. Overall, this is a well-thought out and produced item and makes a lovely gift for people who like fairy stories as well as learning more about British, Irish and Celtic folk history. Whether you would like to know what exactly happened at Glastonbury Tor, how to protect yourself from being taken away some evening by fairies, what the Celtic festivals are, what exactly do leprachauns do or what is awaiting one in Scotland, this book will give you a taste of the magic that happened and happens in Britain and Ireland.

For those who would like to read an extremely well-researched and witty book on what life was like for servants and “domestic” staff (the later term for the role of servants) from the Victorian Era (1837-1901) through to the 1940s, then look no further as Not in Front of the Servants, by Frank Victor Dawes, which is a National Trust classic presents a stunningly detailed picture of what it was like.

Journalist Frank Victor Dawes did a huge amount of research to create this easy-to-read 177-page book and was kind enough and clever enough to write in a tone that is engaging and understandable to many audiences, as well as including many interesting letters* from former servants and their employers from the time period named above.

By reading this book, one learns exactly how servants were treated – from the ways they gained employment, to their, usually meagre, living quarters at the top of the house – where in early days they were lucky to have candles even when employers had electricity, to how they had to work in dim kitchens below the ground floor of a house and other roles. Working conditions, are also well described: they had to get up usually by dawn and work till sometimes at least midnight, be called only by their surname and wear a dull uniform. Maybe the only good thing is that they had a job for as long as they did it well and were loyal.

The book also gives statistics of how many servants there once were in the “old days”,  and also details how numbers decreased when World War One came along and factory jobs, in some respects, gave better wages and more independence to the working class. Plus, all the various suggested laws and laws (there were more of the former than the latter) to regulate this sector are also described.

Spanning 12 chapters, this is a lovely compilation of facts, true stories, author opinion and humour. Well-worth reading for history lessons and also, perhaps a chuckle. Dawes’ book is touching from start to finish.

* After posting a request for “reminiscences of servants or employers of servants in domestic service in England” in The Daily Telegraph in 1972, he received over 700 responses, from which he draws a lot of poignant and also humorous information.

Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black has been a well-selling novel and hit thriller theatre piece in London’s West End for many years – and it is now a classic movie. For those who love turn of the 20th century English period thrillers – and especially the Edwardian era (1901-10), then you will love this film, which stars Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter film fame*), as the costumes, sets and location are perfect for the time.

Radcliffe is young English solicitor Arthur Kipps who goes to the English moorish seaside to sell the old house Eel Marsh House, which was owned by a woman named Alice Drablow and her husband. The village people don’t want him there as Eel Marsh House has always brought them bad luck after the little boy who also lived there, Nathaniel (the supposed son of Alice), died in a carriage accident and was not buried properly. The haunting in the movie, which Kipps, with the help of local and well-to-do landowner Sam Daily (Ciarán Hinds) uncovers is that Alice’s sister Jenette,  is actually Nathaniel’s mother  but was not allowed to see him because she was ‘mentally unstable’. And this is how the Woman in Black arises, she is the angry ghost mother of Nathaniel, who haunts the village and causes its children to kill themselves, because she could not be with her son in life and most likely on the “other side”.

The Woman in Black was originally a hit book by Susan Hill (published in 1983), which came to London’s West End Stage in 1987, and has also been a TV series (1989), however the film probably does it the most justice as one can see the setting of the story and the acting is excellent, bringing the characters to the life of eerie misery that they exist in in the book.  Definitely worth catching as Radcliffe, with the aid of Hinds and the setting, costumes and location create a fairly chilling mystery to be solved. At times The Woman is not as is not as scary as some other period thrillers could be such as The Others starring Nicole Kidman out, but overall worth watching.

* Not trying to be too obvious but what if someone only likes period thriller movies and doesn’t know who Radcliffe is?

Further information:
The Woman in Black (IMDB)
The Woman in Black (Official site)
The Woman in Black (Wikipedia)

For those who love ballet, things French, impressionism and the beauty and joy of movement and a moment of real life caught in a picture, then this Degas exhibit, which has whipped in to London in all its masterpiece of colour, strokes and premise, is worth a viewing.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), in his lifetime, was given the well-earned title “the painter of dancers” and this exhibit, which depicts just a few of his hundreds of scenes he captured in Paris is a pure treat – like a night at the ballet but its colour whirls around you, silent, frozen on paper and canvasses so you can relish it for as long as you want.

Both a frequenter of the opera (he was born into a music loving family), who captured this world in both paint and pastels and a leading member of the Impressionist movement in the 1870s, it is fair to say that Degas was a Bohemian leader and the proof has been graciously brought to London to show it – including such works as The Rehearsal (oil on canvas, 1874), and The Dance Lesson (1879) and Three Dancers (1903). Within the eight or so rooms of the exhibit, the viewer is both within an art exhibit and almost backstage at “the ballet” peering in due to the dark atmosphere and numerous paintings and the statue of Mari van Goethen, the model for the famous dressed wax figure Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1880-81, cast 1922).

Degas, as explained, and witnessed in this exhibit, always was an artist who preferred paintings and drawings of what he did instead of photography or even film, which became a popular medium at the end of his life. And no matter how one quantifies or tries to “theme” his work, like this exhibit wisely points out, Degas is an artist of “the dance” and a major figure in Bohemian Paris. Perhaps he was always in love with the way Paris twinkles in the darkness, who knows? This exhibit is indeed a sight for eyes that long for beauty. The colours, the strokes are, as always, breath-taking and what won his works so many admirers for years – and always will. People need beauty in their lives and this is indeed one of the best European sources around.

Further information:
Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement (Official site – Royal Academy of Art)

For those who would like to see an excellently staged Seventies piece, then look no further as this piece has excellent costumes, lights and acting – and you are stepping BACK into the Seventies for two and a half hours. However, despite all of the excellent sets and costumes and acting… one isn’t very sympathetic to the characters as the script, which is about people having an affair, is very heartless and souless. Worth seeing if you like light humour, otherwise give it a miss and go catch something with more substance. The short review is prompted by one not having much sympathy for the superficiality of the script, despite some witty quips and jokes.

Hmm where to start – should it be with the film or how beautiful Paris is in the film? Well done Woody Allen for capturing the magnificent city by day – and after hours in the graces of dark, cobbled streets and muted light from lamp posts, cafes and candles.

So we start there… and move on first to Paris…. If you have been to Paris – and you do not mind being in a city, then you are likely to fall in love with its lights, its gardens, its views and possibly the food. So for Paris lovers – and those who adore Woody Allen, the boyish charm of Owen Wilson (Gil) and the straightforwardness of Kathy Bates who plays Gertrude Stein for a few scenes then this is a film worth seeing. Woody Allen, as some might know is an expert at wry comments… so if you like sarcastic and dry humour you will like his work. He also loves “themes” whether it is old Eastern Europe (Love and Death), a sci-fi setting (Sleeper) or New York from any decade (Manhattan, Annie Hall, Manhattan Murder Mystery and more).

The dialog of Midnight in Paris is not as intellectually amusing as that of Love and Death,  Annie Hall or some other old works, but it is a lovely “dream” of a piece as a taxi pulls up every night after midnight to take Gil, a struggling writer of fiction, back to 1920s Paris – his favourite time period. And, during this clever Cinderella-like journey (which surreal artist Man Ray – who we meet one night at a café – thinks is no big deal), we meet many people including F Scott Fitzgerald, his wife Zelda, Pablo Picasso, Manet, Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dali and Picasso’s girlfriend of the time, Adriana, who turns out to be the main heroine and love interest for Gil.

Overall, the piece is a very amusing comedy and Owen doesn’t get Adriana as a girlfriend, but he learns to be happy in the present and the taxi rides to 1920s Paris are real but an escape. (Actually Adriana escapes back to an even earlier time period in Paris – turn of the 20^th century – as she loves it so much) but her new comrades of the era Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gaugain and Edgar Degas actually would rather be in the Renaissance period – so her golden age, which is the turn of the century (circa 1900) is boring to them but fascinating to her. And, unlike Gil, she decides to stay there… (psychology going on, yes, but at least Woody keeps it light).

Worth catching – even if you don’t know who everyone is. Stuff can be learned and Paris is really really pretty. Acting and dialog are mediocre overall but the concept is clever and the setting and way it is lighted and portrayed – after midnight – is noirly divine. The length of the film is also perfect as it feels like being in a dream and at the end, as Allen cleverly has let us in to yet another famous  era, and then we have to “go” makes the entire piece feel like a delightful and fleeting dream.

Further information:
Midnight in Paris (IMDB)

As usual, The Royal Opera House presents a beautiful two-piece production that had the entire audience enthralled from start to finish.

Choreographed by Frederick Ashton and arranged by John Lanchbery, The Dream brings to the stage, in dance, William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – in which an argument between the fairy king Oberon and fairy queen Titania makes for a beautiful and fascinating story and ballet. And with the music – the Overture, Scherzo and Wedding March – by 19th century German romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn, one spends approximately an hour in artistic bliss as the dance, costumes, sets, lighting and music are absolutely stunning to experience.

Who could not love being brought in to a magical wood where things glitter and sparkle and there is much dance and merriment going on on a Midsummer’s eve? This is what is happening in The Dream, where the happiness, vibrance and excitement of the piece are owed to everyone on stage (including famed ballet dancer Alina Cojacaru, who was in last year’s Swan Lake ), behind stage (including designs by David Walker and lighting director John B Read)  and in the orchestra (conducted by Barry Wordsworth).

Song of the Earth, in contrast to the elaborateness of The Dream, is minimal but also touching as we experience the passionate and slightly pained music of Gustav Mahler brought to the stage as well and a premise of Chinese T’ang dynasty poetry showing the “transience of life”, especially “through the interactions of the Man, the Woman and the enigmatic Messenger of Death”. However, this show pales in comparison to The Dream, which is rich with splendid costumes and sets, as the stage of Song of the Earth is bare and the costumes are very minimal. But, the choreography (Kenneth Macmillan) and beautiful work of the dancers save the piece.  Song of the Earth is pretty, but probably would not have made it to the main house if not for its partner piece The Dream.

So, both make for an exciting trip to the Royal Opera House, but if one falls more in love with The Dream than Song of the Earth it is understandable as fairies and beautiful dancing are always likely to steal any show. Hurry and fly to the box office to get your tickets before The Dream and its amazing sets, costumes and dancers are gone!

Further information:
Royal Opera House London – official site

As always, Cirque du Soleil is a flurry of pleasant noise and colour when it comes to London (and the UK). However, this time, Totem, which depicts man’s evolution from an aquatic and amphibian being in to a species that wants to fly is pretty but does not take one’s breath away as Quidam did at the Battersea Power Station, when Cirque du Soleil first introduced itself to Britain in 2001.

Make no mistake, the costumes are pretty and the music is upbeat but most of the acrobatics, and the comic interludes, are not as sharp or enticing as past shows. And, for the expense of the tickets, one would be better off getting cheap seats at the opera, doing something outside for free like walking a dog or flying a kite or staying at home and playing a game while listening to good music.

However, although not as electrifying as some of Cirque’s other shows, there are still a few “as always” that hold true.

As always:

• costumes are incredibly beautiful such as “crystal man’s” and the “crystal ladies” who “emerge from the fiery bowels of the earth to evoke the creation of the world and the beauty of minerals” (the ladies also spin shimmering crystal plates for their act)
• the orchestra has a beautiful sound
• the performers try their hardest – and what they do, they do extremely well
• the sets, costumes and lighting are extremely imaginative and eye-catching

So what is the problem? The problem is that the tickets are way too expensive, the plotline is too watery and unimaginative, and because of the vague storyline the acrobatics – such as plate-spinning and tight-rope walking – just don’t come across as exciting as they could if there was a focus purely on either acrobatics or on storyline.

So for a minimum of £27 per ticket after you pay all of the booking fees, is it worth a trip to the Royal Albert Hall to sit in the dark and possibly have an obstructed view? Er, no. Be happy with the website (for clips of the show and artwork) and advertising that you might see around London.

Further information:
Cirque du Soleil: Totem (official site)
Cirque du Soleil (official site)
Royal Albert Hall (officiall site)

In dark January 2012, we have another link in the chain, chapter in the ongoing series and story – or however you want to classify it. More interesting than the last two movies – Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) and Underworld: Evolution (2006) – in the series and even darker (literally).

Gloomy Kate Beckinsale, as Selene, is in top form killing all the “baddies”, which in this case equates to ‘mean’ Lycans (ie modern day werewolves) and corrupt humans who want to help the Lycans. But besides Kate, there is also her hybrid daughter (the offspring of a Lycan and a vampire) Eve (India Eisley) and her lover Michael (Scott Speedman) is kept frozen (until the very end) in a lab where they experiment on “infected” individuals because he is too boring. We also meet new vamp hero David (Theo James) who is attractive and gets extra points with the filmmakers for having a British accent and rugged human police detective Sebastian (Michael Ealy) who helps Kate because his wife became a vampire, who was killed.

On the big screen in 3D and in a dark environment, Underworld: Awakening is very similar to Gotham in the Batman film series. Kate gets points for being superstrong on screen (fun to watch her) moving so fast and the cool effects on her eyes. The film, itself, is very vapid, but fun. Worth seeing if you are a vampire movie fan. Otherwise, go catch a sunset, moonlit night or something more rewarding that won’t give you the chance of eye strain.

Further information:
Underworld: Awakening (IMDB)
Underworld: Awakening (official site)