read mistresses by elizabeth abbot strangely trite history of the mistress from the often told royal mistress to the kept woman, jewish mistress of nazi , gangsters moll and the literacy mistress in fact and fiction rather uninspiring brief biographies of what were in the main selfish woman stuck with selfish men hope there will be companion piece on fancy men and male lovers
the travellers day book a tour of the world in 366 days by fergus fleming a long year of a read and of mixed content a year a page using sources from the medieval to the TV programme but in the main boring content from travel writers and novelist journeymen barely hiding their disdain of foreigners none of the extracts long enough to tell a story but short enough for judgements and solitude
rather a long laborious read and had forgottten most of the days by the end
the victors crown Greek and Roman Sport from Homer to Byzantium by david potter
interesting history of early sports and with good new theories on minoan bull leaping and with 2012 already here a better than usual section on the olympics including not only the victors but their trainers fans and promoters leading to the mixing of greek and roman culture and early history of the games avoiding the arena cliches and giving new though to the myth that the christian church ended the roman games
modern architecture a guide since 1900 well illustrated history of architecture divided into schools and movements from classical and post classical modernist and post modern including the architecture of metropolis and the dictator and showing how the patron works with the architect many new designs fro cathedrals, museums skyscrapers and new multicities
mixed inspiration and many loose lines i had noted that there is a daily mail competition for diamond jubilee poems judged by sir andrew motion, pam ayres and sir roy strong
love to send my England I love this republic to sir and to judge cannot expect to win if pam ayres is judge
for those who do not know pam ayres started as unconscious entertainer of very simple harmless verses same is however true of sir And
my new currently fragementary royal poem uses the words " long diagonal, rectangle,elizabethan virgin, victorian virgin , silent architecture severe vertical " to describe HM who has been so long on the throne almost an institution and just a definition for stability the Regina Queen
with new presidents in France and Russia starting new terms
the idea of england having an elected president seemed odd after all our parliamentary politicians are not worth rising to president and that leaves only a figurehead from the performing arts to fulfil the role of four year term head of state
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