London
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National March for Palestine, 11th November 2023
This was the biggest one yet – estimates of 800,000, and certainly the largest UK protest since the anti-Iraq war one twenty years ago. I received a lot of messages from friends telling me to “stay safe” and “be careful”, which makes me worry that people are increasingly afraid to assert their rights. Certainly the… Read more
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Mom’s Room, West Kensington, October 2023
This is officially the first event I’ve been to in an abandoned primary school. Self described as “an elegant and filthy comedy night”, I headed along to Mom’s Room, an extremely alternative and experimental comedy show – after seeing my suburban pals in New Malden, for maximum juxtaposition. It was only en route that I… Read more
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National March for Palestine, October 28th 2023
“You realise I’m just using you for your whiteness – you’re my safe white friend to shield me in case the police want to arrest me!” My friend was joking, but she kind of wasn’t. Marching for peace while brown isn’t *entirely* outlawed yet, but given recent comments by the Home Secretary, it’s only a… Read more
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The Foundling Museum, Bloomsbury, London
Fanny Heese. Walter Raleigh. Ethelred Hovell. Martin Scaleshooe. Epaminodas Allen. Bifsell Stanes. Jenny Godmanchester. William Hogarth. Elizabeth Foundling. These are just some of the names of the children who found themselves handed in at London’s Foundling Hospital, a charitable enterprise set up in the 18th century “for the care and maintenance of exposed and deserted… Read more
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Dinky
Another cat sitting gig, this time in Tooting. When sitting for wealthy, professional, liberal Londoners, the inside of their houses all merge together after a while. The same brand of ideologically well-meaning toilet paper. The same cook books. A piano for the children (the same children). The cats, though, differ. This latest one was sassy,… Read more
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Ai Wei Wei: “Making Sense” at The Design Museum, London
“Those who are alive, live on fully –don’t hope earth keeps a trace behind”– Ai Qing, 1980 Last night I caught the first half of “The French Dispatch”, one of Wes Anderson’s typically stylised, revealing guides to how wealthy east coast Americans perceive the rest of the world. We meet some amusing dealers, who attempt… Read more
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