Tag: travel

Uncategorized1 Comment

Wolf in Sheep’s clothing

rrn69

Historian Dalrymple whose visceral understanding of India, in Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. This relentless rise of in August 1765, the East India Company, who defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army- what we would now … Continue reading Wolf in Sheep’s clothing

Uncategorized1 Comment

Saudi: A country that is all too easily misunderstood

rrn69

A new history of Saudi Arabia spanning its eighteenth-century origins to the present day. Saudi Arabia on the wealthiest countries in the world, a major player on the international stage and the site of Islam’s two holiest cities and also one of the world’s only absolute monarchies. David Commins narrates the full history of Saudi Arabia from oasis emirate to present-day attempts to leap to a past-petroleum economy. Moving through the ages, Commins traces how the Saud dynasty’s reliance on sectarianism, foreign expertise, and petroleum to stabilize power has unintentionally spawned secular and religious movements seeking accountability and justice. He … Continue reading Saudi: A country that is all too easily misunderstood

Uncategorized1 Comment

The City that never sleeps

rrn69

Manhattan Down is a pulse-pounding contemporary thriller which dares to imagine the unimaginable, a leaderless world being held to ransom by forces unknown for reasons unknown. The questions it asks are terrifying- and so are some of the answers. Manhattan the city that never sleeps just said goodnight. On September 10th,  one day before the anniversary eve of the 9/11 terror attack, New York swelters under a a heat dome of record temperatures. Even the global leaders assembled at the UN HQ are forced to admit that the climate crisis has reached boiling point and the world’s time is running out. … Continue reading The City that never sleeps

UncategorizedLeave a comment

Curious history, endurance of English as a global phenomenon

rrn69

Would you believe it, two thousand years ago English was confined to a handful of savage tribes on the shores of north-west Europe, today, in one form or another, it is spoken by a billion people around the world. More widely scattered, written and spoken than any other language in history, English has become a global phenomenon. Exploring this amazing success, The Story of English is an essential companion for student and general reader alike. The Story of English discusses the influence of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible on the English language as well as how Early Modern … Continue reading Curious history, endurance of English as a global phenomenon

Uncategorized1 Comment

How the Expo brought the world to the desert

rrn69

Like the legacy of France’s first World Expo in 1889 was the Eiffel Tower, Dubai’s Expo 2020 was leaving the car obsessed commercial hub with its first 15-minute city, connected to the gird-locked city via Metro Link. Amid world’s perceptions of Dubai and challenges faced by a fully pregnant, UAE’s longest-serving female minister Reem Al-Hashimy and her team’s efforts for making a pitch for the UAE in Paris, and her turning the desert into a vibrant city-space teeming with people, national and thematic pavilions, restaurants and cafes, parks and playgrounds, and how the Expo brought the world to the desert. … Continue reading How the Expo brought the world to the desert

UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Feminine Sea

rrn69

MUSE GALLERY: LUKE FOREMAN – “THE FEMININE SEA” 10-27 April 2025. 269 Portobello Road. W11 1LR info@themuseat269.com www.themuseat269londonCheck opening times before you travel. Closest tube – Ladbroke Grove. Also quite close to Notting Hill tube  and a wide network of buses. Using a purpose made printer for this photographic project, artistically composed (lighting/settings/form) hand printed  images of items coming from the sea are displayed in black and white as oak framed  artworks created by the talented photographic artist, Luke Foreman. Subject matter includes shells, octopuses, and other objects related to the marine theme. All artworks at the exhibition are Hand Printed on Ilford Warm Tone FB … Continue reading The Feminine Sea

Uncategorized1 Comment

Ireland was a laboratory for empire: While million starved grain was hoarded 

rrn69

In the 1800s, as Britain became the world’s most powerful industrial empire, Ireland starved. In 1847, Richard Webb, the rector of Caheragh, County Cork, sent a group of men to check on his parishioners. On arriving at a cluster of cottages, they were turned back by farmers who told them, “those houses are cursed”. Webb persisted sending another emissary who discovered the corpses of the Barry family there, half-eaten by dogs. The cleric wrote: “I need make no comment on this but ask, are we living in a portion of the United Kingdom?”. The Great Irish famine fractured long held … Continue reading Ireland was a laboratory for empire: While million starved grain was hoarded 

UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Great Mughals

rrn69

THE GREAT MUGHALS – ART, ARCHITECTURE AND OPULENCE.Average entry price £22. CLOSES 5 MAY. VICTORIA AND ALBERTMUSEUM – MANY OTHER SECTIONS IN THE V AND A COMPLETELYFREE OF CHARGE. CLOSE TO A NUMBER OF TUBE STATIONS – CHECKWITH TFL FOR MORE DETAILS for example OF STAIRS FREE ACCESS. A piece of history miraculously conserved and displayed in manyforms.This detailed and awe inspiring exhibition celebrates the Golden Ageof the Mughal court in India (about 1560 – 1660) under the reigns ofAkbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan.https://www.vam.ac.uk/southkensington/visit.See the bejewelled dagger and scabbard (c 1620), the portrait ofShah Jahan holding an emerald by Muhammad … Continue reading The Great Mughals

UncategorizedLeave a comment

Origins of BMW

rrn69

Two engineers Karl Rapp and Gustav Otto founded on 7th March 1916, when an aircraft produced called Bayerische Flugzeugwerke formerly Otto Flugmascjomemfabrik) was established. They were not building cars, but were aircraft engines for Germany during World War I, so Germany their powerful engines can fly higher than ever. In 1918 everything changed Germany lost the war and the Treaty of Versallies banned them from making aircraft engines. This company was renamed to Bayerische Motoren Werke in 1922. On the edge of collapse in 1923 they started making motorcycles BMW R32, a motorcycle that set speed records farm equipment, household items … Continue reading Origins of BMW

Uncategorized1 Comment

Episodic and digressive bitter history

rrn69

BBC journalist and film maker, Nick Thorpe makes an evocative voyage through the Carpathian mountain range of Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine, in a “dark ring” or “magnificent horseshoe” some 1500km long, with its threatened landscape, people, history and talks woodland management in the ancient forests of northern Romania, with an expert nicknamed Ion Barbu; “Beardy John” A landscape of great spruce and beech forests, grass meadows, and ancient villages, it’s people contend daily with the elements- as well as Europe’s last large carnivores. But this fragile ecosystem is now under threat, from climate change and illegal logging. The Silvi-culturist … Continue reading Episodic and digressive bitter history