Art and Architecture, mainly

James Truslow Adams (1878-1949) was a wealthy Am­erican who decided to leave banking and go into writing. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his series on New England history 1921–26. And his Epic of America 1931 was an international best seller. He wa...

I loved the Russian Tea Room in New York. But knew nothing of its origins until I read Daytonian in Manhattan. Young John Pupke left his native Germany in 1845 and worked in a coffee firm in New York. Later he became a partner in the coffee and tea...

After my late father retired from engineering, he bought a travel agency and travelled the world. My late mother was still a practising journ­al­ist back then and she travelled with him. I have used the notes they left, des­crib­ing their favouri...

William Duke of Normandy defeated Anglo-Saxon King Harold II at the battle of Hastings in Oct 1066, a triumph famously recorded in the Bayeux Tapestry. Duke William became the first Norman king of England and transformed the face of Anglo-Saxon Engla...

Organised by the Trade and Industry Co, through a private init­iat­ive of three businessmen, a small Tel Aviv Fair did attract attention in the 1920s. It all began at the Zionist Club on Rothschild Boul­evard and then trav­el­led to sev­eral sc...

Propelled by the bizarre murder story of Burke and Hare, I became interested in the equally bizarre story of William Palmer (1824-56) who studied medicine in London, and qualif­ied in Aug 1846. He returned to his Midlands home town of Rugeley to pra...

Annelise Fleischmann (1899-1994) started studying at the Bauhaus School of Art and Design in 1922. Bauhaus was a newly opened educational institution in Germany, combatting the despair and unemployment that followed WWI with youthful energy and train...