St Martin in the Fields

This beautiful church on the edge of Trafalgar Square is justly famous for its lunchtime (free) and evening concerts and for the excellent food served in the crypt. But having been renovated over the past three years and a special lift entrance to the crypt installed beside the church, it's even more lovely. Click the heading to hear a rehearsal for an evening concert recorded on my last visit.

The National Portrait Gallery

Click the heading for more photos of paintings in the gallery

The National Portrait Gallery is often overlooked, but it shouldn't be. It's amazing for its enormous number of portraits of famous Englishmen and women. History (from the Tudors onwards) comes to life here and the illustrious families who were the backbone of the country for centuries - the Sidneys, the Howards, the Cecils and the like, are magnificently portrayed. Only about one-eigth of the portraits owned by the gallery are on show at any one time, but it is kept up to date with the recently famous (there's a Diana section as well as paintings of people like Ian Botham). The permanent exhibition is free of course and there's a good tea room on the top floor where one can have an unusual view over the roof of the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square

Timeless India

Puttaparthy, India 


Click the images for a larger view

The Charles Saatchi Gallery - New Art from China

Click the heading for some photos of the exhibition and the gallery.

I was delighted to see that Charles Saatchi was turning the old Duke of York's barracks into an art gallery, having fond memories of the place from my youth when it was the HQ of my TA regiment. We used to train by running round the parade ground - now a sports ground - every Tuesday evening.

The new gallery is marvellous. Huge, bright spaces on three floors allow the exhibits to be shown to perfection. I was lucky enough to go on the first day of opening to the exhibition of Chinese art - New Art From China. The gallery is linked to the Duke of York's plaza, the buzzing shopping and food market, and on a sunny day there are few better places to visit in London.

The Part Played by Insurance in the Financial Crisis

Like everyone else, I have been following the financial crisis with morbid fascination, but was surprised when AIG got into difficulties and had to be bailed out by the US Treasury with a loan of $85bn. It was initially difficult to understand how such a huge hole could have opened up on their balance sheet.

This article in the IHT explains it - they were providing a sophisticated form of credit insurance through a financial products unit in London run by a chap called Joseph Cassano. Lloyd's used to have a ban on this type of insurance (though mortagee interest insurance has been commonly used in shipping for many years) as it's so risky - and because it usually involves selection against underwriters as well as accentuating moral hazard.

What worries me now is that no insurer hangs onto to 100% of a risk - they always pass a - usually large - proportion to their reinsurers. This risk may well now be hiding in some innocent-looking treaties waiting to blow up....

Stop Press: But they apparently didn't reinsure the risk - at least from 2005 onwards!

Stop Press: 28th Feb 2009 - the story is clearer now, but no less heinous. See the IHT

Stop Press: 25th March 2009 - More comment on Joseph Cassano from Ariana Huffington here

And further article, which looks rather more darkly at AIG istelf, is here

Sto Press: June 2009- Michael Lewis on Joseph Cassano in Vanity Fair 'The Man Who Crashed the World'

Francis Bacon Exhibition at the Tate

Click the heading for some more photos of the exhibition

I am old enough to deplore the renaming of the Tate as the 'Tate Britain' - a pompous name that has a politically correct ring to it. Why shouldn't it still be 'The Tate' even if the new one is the 'Tate Modern'?

Having got that off my chest, I love the place dearly and go as often as I can. It's light, bright and uplifting, and one can renew one's love of art without condescension. The Turners are superb, of course, unlike any paintings one can see anywhere else, and one can sit in front of that Burne-Jones for ever - but the current Francis Bacon Exhibition eclipses even those unassailable heights. It's one of the greatest exhibitions ever held in London and is brilliantly foreshadowed on the Tate's website with one of the best interactive catalogues anywhere.

When I was there last, there were runners racing through the main halls at one minute intervals; a kind of mini- marathon which invigoraged the place perfectly. I came across an American in a wheelchair who had spent hours trying to photograph them as they raced by. As a means of inspiring artists, it was as inventive and original as the great building itself

Firenze

Kei visited Florence for a week in September and brought back lots of lovely photos. Here are two which remind me strongly of my stay there when I was about her age.

The West Country

Dartmoor

Favourite Scenes

The Sussex Police band playing on the seafront at Eastbourne at teatime on Wednesday 10th September. Click the heading to hear them

Favourite Nursery Rhymes

A jolly fat frog
Lived in the river swim O!
A comely black crow
Lived on the river brim O!
"Come on shore,
Come on shore,"
Said the crow to the frog
And then O!
"No you'll bite me,
No you'll bite me"
Said the frog to the crow
Again O!

"O there is sweet music
On yonder green hill O!
And you shall be a dancer,
A dancer in yellow,
All in yellow,
All in yellow"
Said the crow to the frog
And then O!
"All in yellow,
All in yellow"
Said the frog to the crow
And then O!

"Farewell, ye little fishes
That in the river swim O!
I'm going to be a dancer,
A dancer in yellow."
"O beware!
O beware!"
Said the fish to the frog
And then O!
"I'll take care,
I'll take care,"
Said the frog to the fish
Again O!

The frog began a swimming,
A swimming to land O!
And the crow began jumping
To give him a hand O!
"Sir, you're welcome,
Sir, you're welcome,"
Said the crow to the frog
And then O!
"Sir, I thank you,
Sir, I thank you,"
Said the frog to the crow
Again O!

"But where is the sweet music
On yonder green hill O?
And where are the dancers,
The dancers all in yellow?
All in yellow,
All in yellow,"
Said the frog to the crow
And then O!
But he chuckled, how he chuckled
And then O, and then O!"