If you only visit one museum in London, I suggest you head over to the London Tranport Museum.
Conveniently located in Covent Garden, the museum saw a major refurbishement, completed in November 2007. It’s packed with buses, trams and train carriageways from all the decades. You can climb in some of them and you can also drive a tube train on the Jubilee Line.
Not content with displaying the history of public transport in London, it also adresses problems and potential solutions for the future.
For a mere £10, you will spend the best part of an afternoon in there and feel that you understand London, and how to get around, better. I’m usually not a fan of museums but this one is worth seeing, as it marries the past, the present and the future. Recommended.
Using the concept of the love triangle, “Puccini for beginners” explores relationships and commitment. Added to the notion of commitment in general is New York, where there is never a lack of places to go to for entertainment.
Narrated from a first person point of view, the film makes quite a few tongue in cheek references to Sex & The City; I’m particularly thinking about a scene when they meet in a cafe and each of them is styled like Samantha, Charlotte and Carrie.
While some “chance” meetings between the characters are a bit of a stretch of the imagination, the viewer becomes part of Allegra (Elizabeth Reaser), wondering if this triangle love situation is a good thing.
Grace (Gretchen Mol) is charming and Philip (Justin Kirk) is both annoying and witty.
While a few plot holes means that I could only get 90% into the story, this film is worth a look - maybe renting rather than buying?
“To Miss Wilson and Miss Brundidge
who quite a while ago, lived something
like it, this book is lovingly dedicated”
It indicates that the story is based on real women, or at least inspired by real women, the American painter Mary Ann Willson and her “companion” Miss Brundidge, who lived together on a farm in the early 19th century.
This is so far the oldest lesbian story I have come across. Sure, the book was actually written in the 60s but the fact it is based on real women living in the early 19th century made a huge impact on me.
As for the story, it is a story of passion, of suffering, of love and of happiness. The book is relatively short and reads very well, providing chuckles, tears, gasps, smiles and the belief that love is all you need.
When reading historical novels, I’m used to reading between the lines to decipher special friendships and relationships between the female characters. It might be implied but it is never written black on white.
In recent years, Sarah Waters has provided us with great lesbian historical novels, but I came across Isabel Miller’s book before Sarah came onto the scene, so it was the first of its kind for me, and it is still rare enough to have a place on all lesbians’ bookshelves. Recommended
Many londoners will tell you that what makes London so unique is its worlwide appeal and the constant influx of immigrants from all over the world. Other londoners might tell you that what destroys London is the same thing (and I choose to disagree with them). But whatever your stance, you cannot deny the importance of immigrants on London.
Cue in Zadie Smith’s debut novel, “White teeth”, a thick volume following the lives of Samad, a Blangadeshi born immigrant, and Archie, born and bred in England. There is a melting pot of cultures and generations represented here, and this is an homage to the make-up of many London families.
Zadie portrays all her characters with respect and emotion. Religions mix (or don’t mix), generations mix (or don’t mix), cultures mix (or don’t mix). When I take a walk down to my local shops, it feels like I am passing by Zadie’s characters.
The book was a huge success among Londoners and there is a reason why. In much the same way as Paul Auster’s books breathe New York and Brooklyn, “White teeth” breathes London. Recommended.
The exact day spring turned to summer two years ago, british lesbians were flocking to the cinema en masse to see “Imagine me and you”, the first mainstream british lesbian romcom. I did too.
The trailer was the most exciting trailer we had seen for a while. The film was postponed from march to june, so expectations were going up and up. We were hoping for a british version of “But i’m a cheerleader”. What we got was the legendary wit of “four weddings and a funeral” and the real life characters of “Bridget Jones”.
Piper Perabo (Rachel) and Lena Heady (Luce) divided lesbians. Some preferred Luce, some preferred Rachel, but I don’t know a single lesbian who had no opinion on them.
The story is a classic. Rachel is getting married to Heck (Matthew Goode) and Luce is the florist at the wedding. This is love at first sight between Luce and Rachel, except Rachel doesn’t recognise it, doesn’t want to acknowledge it, doesn’t want to accept it. She’s a good person and doesn’t want to be break Heck’s heart. So things don’t work out for Rachel and Luce. Or do they?
The film is done tastefully and in total respect of lesbian relationships. In fact, if Rachel fell for a man, rather than Luce, the film would be the same. This is more a story of having to choose between two people, than having to choose between a man and a woman.
Trailer:
Cue four weeks after the film hit the cinema screens. The film, despite being totally accessible to a mainstream straight audience, was nowhere to be seen. Wasn’t England ready for such a film? I don’t know but I bet YOU are ready for it. Recommended.
“Journey to a woman” is part of the Beebo Binker Chronicles, a series of six lesbian pulp fiction novels written in the late 50s and early 60s by American writer Ann Bannon.
As such, my expectations in terms of style were somewhat limited, but I had high expectations in terms of entertainement value. I wasn’t disappointed; it’s been a while since I’ve laughed so much reading a book. Ann’s dialogues are packed with every day wit, and her characters really do seem like people I know.
While my critical mind can easily point out some weaknesses in the plot (”no way that would happen this way!” I hear my brain scream), I read the book almost from cover to cover in one sitting, so entranced in the story that I was.
This book is actually the fourth in the series but I don’t feel that I have lost any meaning by not reading the other ones first. According to Wikipedia entry on Ann Bannon, she is said to have written this series as a housewife struggling with her own sexuality; this is probably why her characters seem so true to life, with an urge to come out of their housewifery bubble and go explore the gay scene of the Village, New York.
I’ve enjoyed this book so much that I have now decided to read the other books in the series. Recommended.
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