A S H Smyth

Category Archives: correspondence

Portrait of a ‘lady’ – Constance Markievicz, by Sarah Purser

Friday, November 30, 2018

Tonight, the Irish journalist Mary Kenny has a play on at the Irish Cultural Centre. Entitled Dearest Old Darling, it’s based on letters sent between the Dublin feminist, socialist, communist, Sinn Fein MP (elect, but never sitting) Constance Markievicz – née Gore-Booth – and her sister Eva. My great-great-great-aunt, Sarah Purser, portraitist, landscape artist, and […]

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged Académie Julian, air travel, An Túr Gloine, aristocracy, bathing, Brendan Behan, burglary, Communism, Constance Markievicz, Count Casimir Markievicz, Douglas Hyde, Dublin, Elizabeth Coxhead, Eva Gore-Booth, exploration, feminism, France, Georgina Gore-Booth, grandmothers, Guinness, Huguenots, Ireland, Jack Yeats, James Joyce, John Butler Yeats, John O'Grady, Kathleen Kearney, Lady Gregory, landlords, letters, Lissadell, Mary Kenny, Maud Gonne, Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, National Gallery of Ireland, Oliver Gogarty, painting, politics, portraits, religion, Roger Casement, Rome, Royal Dublin Society, Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, Sarah Purser, Sinn Fein, Sir Henry Gore-Booth, Sligo, socialism, stained glass, the Arctic, the British, the Irish Cultural Centre, theatre, Yeats | Comments (0)

Did The English Patient send me to Afghanistan?

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Two nights from now, by way of (ahem) a birthday present, I will be attending a live-orchestra screening of The English Patient at the Albert Hall. I had invited an old friend, a raven-haired young lady (named in Debrett’s) of impossibly romantic tendency, who first exposed me to the film in, I’d say, about 1998 […]

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged Academy Awards, Afghanistan, Ahmed Hassanein, air travel, American University in Cairo, anatomy, Anthony Minghella, Arabic, army, Banana Republic, bedouin, Benny Goodman, Booker Prize, books, bookshops, Brighton, Bruce Chatwin, Byron, Canada, Charing Cross Road, Christopher Hitchens, clothing, Debrett's, deserts, Dorset, Egypt, Egyptology, exploration, film, French Foreign Legion, Gabriel Yared, Geoff Dyer, Geographical, Geographical Journal, Herodotus, Hungarian, Hungary, JM Coetzee, John Ball, John Hare, Joseph Conrad, Justin Marozzi, Kensington Gore, Kristen Scott Thomas, László Almásy, London, Long Range Desert Group, Lorenz Hart, love, Michael Ondaatje, mountains, music, novels, Orientalism, Oscar Wilde, Oxford, Picador, plums, Ralph Bagnold, Ralph Fiennes, Ranulph Fiennes, Richard Bermann, Robert Twigger, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Geographical Society, Saul Kelly, Sinai, SOE, song, South Africa, the Himalayas, the Nile, The Oldie, the Sahara, the Western Desert, war, WG Sebald, William Golding, wind, women, WW2, YouTube, Zerzura | Comments (0)

Up diddly up, down diddly down

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Itchin’ for a Twitch Inn, at the Heritage weekend. — For The Oldie

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged Battle of Britain, Douces Manor, Dunkirk, fine dining, Germans, graffiti, Guy Gibson, Heritage Open Days, Idi Amin, John Cunningham, Kent, Maidstone, North Downs, Peter Townsend, pubs, RAF, Tesco, The Beatles, The Dambusters, The Malling Society, The Oldie, Twitch Inn, West Malling, WW1, WW2 | Comments (0)

Brue meets gel

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

About the Bruegels on my bedroom wall. — For The Oldie

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged AA Gill, anatomy, art, Athena International, Bath, Brussels, Carmina Burana, chickens, childhood, death, Don DeLillo, drawing, drink, etching, Flanders, Fleet Foxes, gambling, Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, Jürgen Müller, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Nabokov, painting, peasantry, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Pieter Bruegel the Younger, pissing, religion, TASCHEN, the Duke of Alba, the Habsburgs, The Holburne Museum, The Oldie, the Spanish Inquisition, the tower of Babel, Thomas Schauerte, Tom Frantzen, Vienna, war, weddings, WH Auden | Comments (0)

Sehr Gutenberg

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

On movable type, the Internet, and almost every damn thing in between. — For The Oldie

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged blogging, books, Germany, Gutenberg, information, Latin, Mainz, marginalia, monks, movable type, printing, Project Gutenberg, publishing, religion, scriptoria, Sellar and Yeatman, Stephan Füssel, TASCHEN, technology, the Bible, the Göttingen Library, the internet, The Oldie, Umberto Eco, UNESCO, vellum | Comments (0)

Spies like us?

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

A less-than-Smiley response to John le Carré. — For The Oldie

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged books, George Smiley, John le Carré, lexicons, London, maps, memoir, MI5, MI6, Penguin, spies, The Oldie, walking | Comments (0)

Creation-ism

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

This weekend I will be joining a local choral society for their performance of Haydn’s The Creation – and what better way to welcome Spring now that it’s finally arrived. An avowed and much-loved masterpiece from its earliest performances – Vienna, 1798 – ‘whose appeal [I read from A Peter Brown’s DECCA sleeve-notes] was irresistible […]

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged A Peter Brown, Aled Jones, army, bassoons, Beethoven, Chapel Royal, choral societies, Christianity, cosmology, cricket, DECCA, German, Germans, Hampton Court, Handel, Haydn, Italians, Kent, King James, Maidstone, Milton, music, Napoleon, oratorio, Oxford University, Poetry, religion, school, sheep, singing, Spring, the Bible, the Church of England, the French, The Oldie, the Oxford Spezzati, tigers, Vienna, war, West Kensington, whales, worms | Comments (0)

A moment of indexision

Thursday, March 29, 2018

On Bram Stoker, #indexday, and the weird and wonderful history of the hapax legomenon. — For The Spectator

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged #indexday, Amazon Kindle, Audible, audiobooks, BRam Stoker, British National Corpus, Catullus, dogs, Egyptology, Foundling Museum, Gaelic, Galway, Greek, Greg Wise, hapax legomenon, Harkhuf, Hebrew, hieroglyphs, indexes, Ireland, Jeremy Paxman, Latin, Mayan, National Indexing Day, Old High German, Oxford English Dictionary, Poetry, prayer, pygmies, religion, Sam Leith, Shakespeare, Society of Indexers, TE Lawrence, The Spectator, University Challenge, vampirism, zoophagy | Comments (0)

“Festooned with Saxons” – or; How great-grandfather won the Triple Crown

Friday, March 16, 2018

‘If success does not throw the Irishmen off their balance, they may go on winning and winning until the height of a season’s ambition may be attained.’ — Athletic News and Cyclists’ Journal, 3 February 1896 . When it comes to the 6 Nations, in recent years the fixtures guys have done well making sure […]

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged 6 Nations Championship, Australia, barristers, Brian Moore, British and Irish Lions, Cardiff Arms Park, cricket, debuts, Douglas Hyde, Dublin, embroidery, England, France, French Foreign Legion, gloves, golf, Grand Slam, Guinnness, hockey, humour, Ireland, Irish Rugby Football Union, Italy, James Sealy, Journalism, judges, justice, King's Counsel, law, Marylebone Cricket Club in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell, painting, Poetry, politics, religion, Robert Johnstone, rugby, Samuel Beckett, Sarah Purser, Saxons, Scotland, Second Boer War, South Africa, sport, St Patrick's Day, tea, The Athletic News and Cyclists' Journal, the Fates, The Times, Tom Crean, Trinity College Dublin, Triple Crown, Ulster, Una Hyde, Victoria Cross, Wales, Yeats | Comments (3)

Around the world in 60 minutes

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

On microlecturing, the RGS, and a whistlestop tour around the Jaffna peninsula. — For The Oldie

Also filed in Journalism | Tagged anthropology, Australia, Christopher Ondaatje, cinema, coral, cycling, depression, drink, exploration, Fearghal O'Nuallain, geography, Hemingway, India, Jaffna, Levison Wood, Mary-Ann Ochota, Matthieu Tordeur, microlecturing, migration, Mongolia, Nicholas Crane, photography, public speaking, Pushkar, Rajasthan, Royal Geographical Society, running, Ruper Sagar-Musgrave, Scotland, South-East Asia, Sri Lanka, the Himalayas, The Oldie, the Pacific Crest Trail, the Zambezi, Transcaucasus, travel, TV, walking, war | Comments (0)

Category Archives: correspondence

Portrait of a ‘lady’ – Constance Markievicz, by Sarah Purser

Did The English Patient send me to Afghanistan?

Up diddly up, down diddly down

Brue meets gel

Sehr Gutenberg

Spies like us?

Creation-ism

A moment of indexision

“Festooned with Saxons” – or; How great-grandfather won the Triple Crown

Around the world in 60 minutes

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