Jackdaw
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Jackdaw
Anomalisa
Anomalisa

Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman’s latest film, is a perfect little nugget of weirdness and mundanity. Out in cinemas in the UK on March 11, Anomalisa is almost kitchen-sink, but kitchen-sink in a stop-motion world, and kitchen-sink à la Kaufman with a disorientating and cataclysmic plunge into the paranoid shadows of the human psyche.

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FilmRebecca BoeyMarch 8, 2016anomalisa, charlie kaufman, animation, stop motion, stopmotion, duke johnson, film, cinema
In Praise of Plain Jane Cookbooks
In Praise of Plain Jane Cookbooks

Nowadays we expect our cookbooks glossy, gleaming, and heaving with sex-appeal. But there is something to be said for plain cookbooks like Jane Grigson's Good Things...

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Food and DrinkHope WhitmoreMarch 7, 2016cookbook, Jane Grigson, Good Things, food, recipes
Yumi Okita and the Giant Moths
Yumi Okita and the Giant Moths

Yumi Okita makes beautiful lepidoptera sculptures using fabrics, cotton, fake fur and feathers, with daintily hand embroidered and hand painted details that bring her creations to life...

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ArtRebecca BoeyMarch 4, 2016fabric, textiles, moths, butterflies, lepidoptera, Yumi Okita
Literary Style Heroes: The Duchess de Guermantes
Literary Style Heroes: The Duchess de Guermantes

Why I’d like the wardrobe of The Duchess de Guermantes in Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu.

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LiteratureJudith MokMarch 2, 2016Proust, Countess Greffuhle, A la recherche du temps perdu, Style, Dress
The Real Helen Titcheners
The Real Helen Titcheners

Behind the closed doors of Blossom Hill Cottage in Ambridge, the fictional village that is the home of Radio 4’s The Archers, a disturbing domestic abuse storyline is excruciatingly playing out.

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RadioRebecca BoeyMarch 1, 2016Rob Titchener, Helen Archer, Radio 4, Archers, Sisters Uncut, Austerity, Refuge, Domestic Abuse, Radio
Daniels
Daniels

Daniels are Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

This absurdist film-making duo may hide their deep philosophical genius behind a smokescreen of bro-ness and potty humour but don’t be fooled, there’s nothing stupid about their work.

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FilmRebecca BoeyFebruary 16, 2016Daniels, short film, Interesting Ball, Swiss Army Man, Sundance
Lovely Cafes, Edinburgh
Lovely Cafes, Edinburgh

The Zulu Lounge and The Caley

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Food and DrinkHope WhitmoreFebruary 15, 2016cafe, coffee, cosy, edinburgh
The Owl and the Pussycat: A Whimsical Tale of True Love, Adventure and Travel
The Owl and the Pussycat: A Whimsical Tale of True Love, Adventure and Travel

The whimsy of this poem by Edward Lear introduced generations of children to adventure, travel and true love, with these two explorers who threw doubt and unease out of the boat before embarking on their journey, the world and seas at their command.

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LiteratureHope WhitmoreFebruary 14, 2016Owl, Pussycat, Travel, True love, poem
London cafes to read in
London cafes to read in

London isn’t short of trendy cafes. Finding somewhere cosy and homely with deep sofas and little crannies you can read in is a far tougher ask.

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Food and DrinkRebecca BoeyFebruary 14, 2016cosy, cafe, reading, london
My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead
My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead

On first glance I missed the apostrophe s after the word sparrow, reading the title as My Mistress Sparrow is Dead, and imagining a frail woman of Victorian beauty, mourned by her equally consumptive lover. The true title, and the story behind it, is why I love this book.

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LiteratureHope WhitmoreFebruary 14, 2016Love Stories, Short Stories, Jeffrey Eugenides
Mulder and Scully, the Greatest Love Story of all Time
Mulder and Scully, the Greatest Love Story of all Time

The new series of the X-Files is out and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t re-watch the entire nine series and two films in preparation. It may have taken me the best part of six months but it was worth it and I can now report from a place of authority that the X-Files is the Greatest Love Story of All Time.  

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TVRebecca BoeyFebruary 14, 2016X-Files, Mulder, Scully, True love
Nymphomaniac Victorians

The Victorians are recognised as pioneers of sexual repression and extreme prudishness, and certainly that is the image they themselves were keen to project. But was this a clever ruse to hide their rampant appetites for the pleasures of the flesh?

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LiteratureRebecca BoeyFebruary 14, 2016The Pearl, Victorian porn
Yellow-washing Art?
Yellow-washing Art?

It was with such joy that I happened upon the work of Chinese artist Yin Xin, whose work ‘After Masters’ is a collection of famous European paintings reimagined with East Asian faces.

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ArtRebecca BoeyFebruary 14, 2016Yin Xin, Art