Orbital by Samantha Harvey – Booker Prize Winner 2024

A friend asked me recently whether I liked modern books. I told him that I like good books, some of which are modern. This good modern book is a sterling example of an outstanding book written in the last year. Orbital is a short novel, some 130 pages, and very...

The Bungalow Galle Fort, Sri Lanka

Charlotte and I were in Sri Lanka recently for a wedding of a dear friend. We took the time to explore the beautiful country. We visited the capital Colombo first, then Galle Fort, followed by Negombo for the wedding and, finally, Kandy, in the mountains. We then...

Chez Antoinette – Chic French Bistro Victoria, London

Charlotte and I enjoyed a magical trip to London just after the Bank Holiday weekend to celebrate Easter. Easter is the most important time in the Church's calendar. Christians across the world celebrate the reality of Christ's resurrection and by extension His defeat...

Rest on the Flight into Egypt – Caravaggio

Charlotte and I saw a trio of beautiful Caravaggio paintings while visiting the Doria Pamphili Gallery in Rome in September last year. The gallery has hundreds of paintings and many masterpieces. I may do a piece on the gallery as a whole and then on some of its...

Saint Michael The Archangel Defeats Satan – Guido Reni

I did two posts on Guido Reni a while ago, one on St Joseph with the Infant Jesus, and another of the Portrait of Cardinal Bernardino Spada, which I think I saw in Rome. One (former) Cardinal I saw with Charlotte, for sure, was the Velasquez painting of the Portrait...

Locura – Virus – AOTM February 2023

Hello from your absentee blog host. I am sorry, to the few souls who will see this post, for my absence of late. I will heal the keenly felt rift in content with my favourite album of late, Virus, by Locura. This is the fifth studio album from the Argentine New Wave...

Christ in the House of His Parents – Sir John Everett Millais

Amazingly, this painting is Millais' first important religious subject. It shows the boyhood of Christ, of which not much is known. The gospels of St Luke and St Matthew speak on Christ's childhood years. Christ's dedication is at Luke 2:21-40 and His visit to the...

The Merry Maid Bar & Grill Birmingham – A Night to Remember

Picture the scene: Charlotte, Colin, Soyful and I are driving up to the Merry Maid, up through Five Ways, up the Belgrave Middleway, then up the back of Dunelm. We parked opposite the restaurant, which is situated between Priestley Road and Athole Street. During the...

St Joseph with the Infant Jesus – Guido Reni

This 1620 painting took my by surprise this morning. I was wondering out of my room about to prepare for the day and Nicholas showed me the Universalis painting today. Universalis is a wonderful app for Catholics with the Divine Office and Mass readings for the day,...

Favourite Album Cover – March 2023

I first heard of this band on Toast of London, when Steven Toast was dating Clancy Moped. Clancy was a 'weather girl' and was telling Toast her favourite bands over dinner: "the Weather Report, Snow Patrol, Earth Wind and Fire, especially the Wind bit". On the day of...

Hello and welcome to CEDRIC SUGGESTS, specially designed for those of us who are partial to a slice or three of The Culinary Arts…

But Nota Bene Dear Reader: this blog is NOT limited to my recipe and restaurant ramblings alone! I shall also take it upon myself to decribe my various other encounters and experiences in this wonderful world we all share. Expect recommendations of excellent service received, for example, and lively discussions on a variety of exhilerating sublects like as Fashion, Art, Education, Religion and Fitness my word. Not forgetting my regular Favourite Albums of the Month / Year feature. Are you ready? Then enter Freunde, Étranger, Stranger…

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Five (?) Favourites – April 2022 Edition

Five (?) Favourites – April 2022 Edition

Hello and good greeting. I have decided to downsize my five favourite feature to three favourites on account of increasing time commitments not enabling me to listen to as many albums as I should like. Here are three which stuck out to me this month. J. J. Cale -...

After great pain, a formal feeling comes – Emily Dickinson

After great pain, a formal feeling comes – Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson, a poet who can only be described as American, wrote a dashful poem about the aftermath of a great pain. My darling Charlotte has deciphered the pain as being that which follows a bereavement. See what you make of it: After great pain, a formal feeling...

Dusk – The The, Album of the Month March 2022

Dusk – The The, Album of the Month March 2022

This album, as many of the preceding albums of this, Matt Johnson's terrific band, have blown me away. You might even say they have detonated a mind bomb. Father has remonstrated me for failing to mention that Matt Johnson was a member of Marc and the Mambas, the...

When You Are Old – William Butler Yeats

When You Are Old – William Butler Yeats

W. B. Yeats, (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939), was an Irish poet and writer, and one of the leading literary figures of the last century. He is a key figure behind the Irish Literary Revival. In December 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his...

Five Favourites – March 2022 Edition

Five Favourites – March 2022 Edition

Welcome to the March 2022 edition of Five Favourites. See below my choices for this month Black and White - The Stranglers (1978) The four members of the Stranglers are looking quite morose on this cover. You will be glad to know that the B side of Tank, when it was...

Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds – Vincent Van Gogh 1890

Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds – Vincent Van Gogh 1890

Van Gogh painted this arresting painting in the last few weeks of his life. He did a series of paintings of wheat fields around Auvers, of which Theresa May would be proud. This one, Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds, is quite arresting and took me by surprise. In these...