Music and literature at The Hay Festival

The legendary Hugh Masekela

Hugh Masekela

Francisco Bettencourt

Francisco Bettencourt and Oscar Guardiola-Rivera

Anthony Giddens

The legendary Toni Morrison

The legendary Toni Morrison

Paradise aka Barbados

The mammoth Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Centre-Pompidou, Paris

From the Jiwar Facebook page

Post by Jiwar Creation & Society.

Ten things I’ve learnt in five days in Barcelona

1. Barcelonans love all things organic

Recommended: Woki Organic Market

2. Affordable food is everywhere
Recommended: Macchina, Origens, Veg World India

3. Wednesday is cinema night
Four euros for any film. Be warned, long queues!
Recommended: Cine Verdi

4. There’s an English language bookshop a three minute walk from my apartment that stocks a wide range of non-fiction and fiction.
Recommended: Hibernian Books, Carrer de Montseny 17, 08012

5. Catalan flags are everywhere!
Hanging from balconies, pasted onto lampposts and graffitied on walls.

6. Flamenco rules!
A packed out and intimate performance at Flamenco Barcelona featuring an hypnotic cantaor y cantaora, a tight three-piece band and a spellbinding bailaor.
Recommended: Flamenco Barcelona, Carrer Progres, Barcelona

7. Protest lives!
It seems wherever I go, protest follows me.
See: Stop Pujades Transport

8. Gaudi is great
So say the hundreds who queue to visit the master’s work.

9. Sex is out in the open
Billboards for call girls and escort services (sorry, no pictures, but they’re there on the motorway driving out from the airport into the city centre).

10. Do believe the hype
Barcelona is rightly known as the capital of culture and is called “inspirational.” For once, this isn’t just marketing flan.

Four more years...

Monday, 21st January, 2013

Sunday, 20 January, 2013

James Baldwin mini biography

My books of 2012

Two-thousand-and-twelve was a bumper year for quality non-fiction. Here is a selection of my top books from the last twelve months:

A compulsive combination of travel, history, ethnography and memoir  from the acclaimed Indian writer. An absolute gem.

A counter intuitive and engaging study of Asia's intellectual response to Western imperialism that contains many lessons for Africa.

A compelling exploration of the years immediately following World War II and preceding the Cold War that expose the depths of European postwar depravity.

The subtitle to this epic examination of  postwar Eastern Europe says it all. Scholarly and  engaging, Pulitzer Prize winner, Anne Applebaum delivers a timely history lesson.

I must admit, I haven't actually read Artemis Cooper's comprehensive biography of the late travel writer, however, having listened to extracts on Radio 4's Book of the Week, it's top of my list for 2013.

Christmas night theatre

Roverman’s production of Ebo Whyte’s play, Don’t Mess With A Woman was a fantastic end to a humid Kumasi, Ghana, Christmas Day.

Whyte’s tale of a modern-day woman scorned was brimming with narrative goodness. The two-hour performance was delivered by a stellar cast accompanied by a fine house band against a basic but appropriate backdrop. The culturally-relevant storyline, and punchy dialogue, blended humour and drama with a moral message, and was perfect for the youthful audience.

The production provided further proof that Ghana is full with theatrical talent, something, I hope, will be developed and recognised in the near future.

Currently doing a residency at the National Theatre, Accra, Roverman’s festival of five Ebo Whyte plays is a must-see for both theatre vets and neophytes alike.

Catch it while you can!

European odyssey, part 6: France & Switzerland

Gatwick Airport, UK

View from the 39th floor: Lyon, France

Lyon Part Dieu train station

Culoz, France: The French Outback

Geneva

Zurich (Singing / Human Christmas tree)

Zurich main train station

Swiss beer

Zurich

Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne

Basel

Basel Christmas market

Basel Christmas market

Basel train station

My mother's garden