Newsletter #17

Happy May Bank Holiday, hope you have had a good one!

I am reading

I have just indulged in Flesh by David Szalay, my favourite fellow half Hungarian author – I am NOT an author of course, but I am half Hungarian and was introduced to his work meeting his sister Ilona Szalay, a very talented artist at an opening of one of her shows in Edinburgh.

I was gripped by this book from the start – who wouldn’t be, by the very naughty sex scenes between a teenage boy and his middle-aged lady next door neighbour. The rags to riches tale unfolds in an unrelenting, matter of fact manner: the initial cougar sex, followed by many troubles including an escape from Hungary to the glamorous allure of capitalist London where he ends up a doorman in a strip club, until a kind stranger sets him up as a servant in an affluent family, I am sure you can guess what happens there! The story ends with his final, rather grim return to a slightly more modern Hungary. The deadpan tone, combined with the fast pace of the story ensures that the prose never mires for a second throughout this richly twisting tale, instead it simply provides sheer, non-stop entertainment.

I am watching

The newly updated series of the 1973 film The Day of The Jackal, on Now TV offers another insight into Hungarian life. A few scenes are filmed in both Budapest and the countryside and depict the local culture rather hilariously harshly in moments.

Grilled pork fat anyone?

I loved Eddie Redmayne’s fée portrayal of this sinister arch villain and was completely taken in by his sympathetic, ‘father of a toddler’ side. I also loved the thrilling cat and mouse tension between him and Bianca, a tenacious MI6 officer who has a needy, school age teenager to think about as well as a psychopathic assassin to catch.

Clearly being a secret agent and a contract killer do not combine well with family life, you will helpfully realise by the end of the show.

I am listening

To Brackish a Podcast presented by Kate Tregidden where she interviews artists and designers who share a deep concern and connection to our environment, both built and natural. A heavenly listen for me.

I am writing

About travel and art. A recent trip to London included a visit to the Grayson Perry ‘Delusions of Grandeur’ exhibition at the Wallace Collection. A very special destination for me as my late mum used to work in Manchester Square and would often enjoy a little wander around the Wallace Collection during her lunch hour.

I went with my cousins Nicole and Gaby and I plucked up the courage to knock on the door of my mum’s old office, for a quick peek. It was a slightly crumbling accountancy firm where she worked part time when I started primary school. It is now a swish fund manager.

Having lost both my parents when I was quite young I have long found childhood memories quite painful, so I am delighted to realise that I can enjoy them now. I think because my daughter is living in London, I have had the chance to reconnect with the city and I see my young life there as a time of real joy. The next day I met my friend and fellow writer Susan Gray and we visited the beautiful Richard Wright Exhibition at Camden Art Centre, enjoyed a delicious lunch in the café and then visited the equally beautiful Alison Watt exhibition at the Pitzanger Gallery in Ealing, which has an accompanying show by sculptor Nicole Fahri. I was kindly invited by the PR to pay a visit.

Alison Watt and Richard Wright were fellow students at Glasgow Art School and I am lucky to know them both personally. Nicole Fahri’s work as a sculptor was new to me, of course I am familiar with her work as a fashion designer but she has been practicing as a sculptor for two decades now.

The exhibition takes its name from J’Accuse…! — Émile Zola’s famous open letter that exposed the wrongful conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in France in 1898. Inspired by Dreyfus’s case, Farhi has spent the past two years researching and sculpting figures from around the world who have been been victims of miscarriages of justice. A thought provoking show that despite the harrowing subject matter is easy to connect with.

The next day, I attended the Noah Davis at the Barbican, also new to me and an incredibly moving display of his work as a young artist whereby he undertook to depict life in modern America for the black community, a large minority in the US but relatively invisible in mainstream American art history. His efforts to put that right are heroic and make his relatively short life feel very cruel and unfair. We enjoyed another delicious lunch, as a family this time, at the Eagle in Farringdon, for my nephew’s birthday,

I then nipped back to the barbican for an Architectural tour, which they hold on the hour all day. You need to book and it costs £18 if you do not qualify for a concession, which I was a little shocked by, as I was expecting a tokenistic half hour wander with a talk for free, but handed over my card and boy did I get my moneys worth. The tour is a full one and a half hours or more of intensive history of the site, the planning process the architecture and the waxing and waning fortunes of the estate over the decades. This year's Open House Festival will take place 13-21 September 2025 - cannot wait to return and explore the surrounding area more.

I had to leave before it finished as I had a train to catch, but my goodness I returned to my little country home a lot more educted and knowledgable than when I left.

I am enjoying

Trying to do #asketchaday however badly…