Culture Watch

The series is largely based on Julie Summers book Jambusters, which details Britain's Women's Institute’s contribution to wartime food production, education, and social issues. Though World War II was a time of rations and sacrifices, there are still plenty of fashion moments in Home Fires. Actress Francesca Annis was especially struck by the original, period clothing used for the series. more »

The story line covers about forty years in the life of an Englishman who has become first a playwright, then a film scriptwriter making comparisons between being English and being anything else, but most often, with being American. He declares his chagrin at the formalities and frozen traditions of English formal education and the class system, but never can hide his own debts to both. this intensely detailed psychological, political, philosophical biography becomes so thickly layered, it would be easy to be overcome by it. As it is, it takes over 600 printed pages to tell it. more »

Rose Madeline Mula writes: I'm depressed. I just got back from the first high school reunion I ever attended. I refuse to say which one. Not which high school-which year. I don't want anyone to know. I won't even admit it to myself. What I will tell you is that none of my classmates showed up. They sent their grandparents instead, all of who insisted they had gone to school with me. No way. more »

The British Museum, in partnership with National Museums Scotland, has staged the first British exhibition in 40 years on the Celts. The exhibition tells the story of the different peoples who have used or been given the name 'Celts' through the art objects that they made, including intricately decorated jewelery, highly stylized objects of religious devotion, and the decorative arts of the late 19th century which were inspired by the past. more »