A little slice of London life …….. courtesy of Joan Littlewood and Barbara Windsor

Now I am a great fan of those books, plays, and films that set out to portray the lives of working people during the 1950s, and 60s.

The Christening, Greenwich, 1981

Saturday Night  and Sunday Morning, This Sporting Life, A Taste of Honey, and A Kind of Loving, were set in the decades when I was growing up and although our family life was very tame in comparison, the story lines and the settings were ones I recognized and knew.

Today I still watch them, but less for the drama, and more for the period shots of people going about their daily business, catching trams, and trolley buses, often against backdrops of bombed out streets, wearing clothes that made little distinction between the older generation and the younger one.

Looking at the collection of DVDs on the book shelves what strikes me is that so many of the ones I regularly watch are set in the North, whether it is Nottingham, Salford, or Wakefield, which given that I have lived in the North for over half a century is fine, but then I am a Londoner, and the list barely touches London.

Greenwich, 1979

That said I did watch the 1951 movie, the Pool of London recently, enjoyed the story, and reveled in shots of the Thames, London Bridge and the Observatory at Greenwich.

All of which is an introduction to tonight’s film ……..Sparrows Can’t Sing.

I was too young to see the play which was staged at Joan Littlewood’s Stratford East theatre in 1960, and some how missed the film which came out three years later.

But in 1963 I would still have been just 13, and a bit and while I might have managed to get in,  some how I doubt it would have appealed.

Tonight, is a different thing, and having purchased a “digitally restored” version, I shall sit down with Tina to watch this slice of London life.  Just how much of the Isle of Dogs, Limehouse and Stepney I recognise will be up for debate.

Woolwich, 1979

And it will be interesting to see what Tina makes of it.  She is Italian and was born in the mid 1960s.

In the fullness of time I will pass it on to our lads, who were all born, here in Manchester in the 1980s and 90s,  and see in their dad a south east London lad who crossed the Thames once too often.

But for now, I shall get myself ready to watch Barbara Windsor, James Booth, George Sewell and host of Joan Littlewood’s original cast recreate a London I knew.

Location; London

Pictures; Greenwich and Woolwich in the 1970s and 1980s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Glue Man, three young people and a fascinating insight into the Britain of 1943

Now the thing about old films is that long after their contemporary appeal has faded they become a piece of history.

It starts with the the clothes, the cars and the buildings and moves on to the assumptions, prejudices and attitudes of the people portrayed along with its period comment on the events of the time.

So it is with A Canterbury Tale, made in 1944 by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

The film is loosely based around the Canterbury Tales and involves three very different people all with their own unique and powerful stories who come together in a Kent village just outside Canterbury in the summer of 1943.

The three consist of a British sergeant an America sergeant and a Land Girl who are thrown together by the mystery of the Glue Man.

The events last only a few days but in the course of those three days we get to see how these young people from different places and different walks of life work together to solve the mystery and come to a closer understanding what they have in common.

Now given that the film was made in 1944 it is pretty easy to see the motivation that drives the plot and that of course is part of its value today.

The threat of a common enemy in the form of the Glue Man unites the three and along the way we get to know more about their own lives which have been put on hold by the war.

And as the plot unfolds the film offers some wonderful scenes of Kent over 70 years ago, from the bombed out houses on streets in Canterbury to rural scenes in the fictitious village of Chillingbourne.

These are themselves a priceless record of a past which no longer exists.  The hay waggon loaded high with a land girl sitting on top, the old men outside the pub and the carpenter talking about when to lay down timber for the future are scenes of a rural way of life which seem timeless but has pretty much vanished..

And of course that is one of the messages of the film that here is a way of life unchanged for centuries which is at the very heart of what we were fighting for.

Added to which it provided an opportunity to show just what we had in common with the United States as the that young American talks to a carpenter and finds out that he lays down timber for the future in exactly the same way as in America.

And as you would expect of a film with an eye to its propaganda value, all three receive good news.

The Land Girl discovers her boyfriend who was shot down has survived and that his father no longer opposes them getting married, our American gets news that his girlfriend is serving with the Women’s Army Corps in Australia and the British sergeant gets to play the organ in Canterbury Cathedral.

All of which in itself echoes those themes of the People’s War which pitched people out of their ordinary lives and threw them new challenges and in the process showed how the country was united in its determination to win.

And that is all I want to say, if you want more the film is available and as well as being a good tale is real history lesson.

Of course there are a shed load of equally interesting films from the period which no doubt I will return to.

Pictures; cover from A Canterbury Tale, and Canterbury in 2009 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Things people do in Manchester on a Saturday ……….

He is quite a showstopper and is as much a landmark on Market Street as the person selling hats, scarves, and silly plastic things  as are the fast-food vans and the sloganizing paper selling activists, with a petition in one hand and a leaflet in the other.

He always draws a crowd who are fascinated by his ability to remain motionless, even when provoked, but on receipt of a donation will drop his briefcase, as a recognition of the gift.

And then pick it up this time in the other hand before becoming a statue once again.

I like watching the crowd who respond with a mixture of bewilderment, smiles and of course a picture from their phone.

To this some will add a comment to their companions, and more than one having photographed the man proceeded to phone a friend.

Now I know there are heaps of these artists in every big city, ranging from Egyptian mummies to pale faced clowns.

But I like our office worker with swept back tie and coat tails.

So that is it, except for the collection of pictures, of people taking pictures.

Location; Market Street

Pictures, Things people do in Manchester on a Saturday, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Sunday in Naples with Sophia Loren …….

This Sunday we sat down to watch Yesterday Today Tomorrow.*

My Wikipedia tells me that,“it is a 1963 comedy anthology film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica.

It stars Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. 

The film consists of three short stories about couples in different parts of Italy.” 

Now for Rosa the film was a hit, not least because the first story shot in Naples was where she was born and grew up, and the scenes were ones she was familiar with.

More so because she left the city just three years before the film was released.

For Tina and me all three stories resonated. Tina grew up just north of Milan and I have always been drawn back to Rome while both of us love Naples.

Moreover Tina and her siblings grew up speaking Neapolitan at home and “official Italian” at school, at work and to their friends.

So we all found something in the three stories.

And of course it underlined that marvel of technology that the three of could sit in our front room and watch an Italian movie beamed from a popular Italian T V station before swapping to the very popular In Sunday which takes over the whole of the afternoon and early evening on Rai 1, before switching late in the evening to BBC.

Location; 1963

Pictures; stills from Yesterday Today Tomorrow

* Ieri, oggi, domani, 1963

**Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday,_Today_and_Tomorrow

A bit of history and a lot of food ....... Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

Now I have long admired the work of Stanley Tucci in a host of films, and recently I listened to him read from his book "Taste: My Life Through Food"  on the wireless.

Naples, 2018

All of which means I watched his television programme, "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy".

"Academy Award nominee Stanley Tucci travels across Italy to discover the secrets and delights of the country’s regional cuisines. 

Tucci comes prepared with a bottomless appetite for it all, showing us how the diversity of Italian cooking offers a gateway through which you can glimpse Italy’s history and culture. 

Naples is the third-largest city in Italy, but its history and beauty has been tainted with underdog status from close association with Vesuvius – the world’s most dangerous volcano, the Camorra – a notorious branch of the local mafia - and poverty. 

In the historic Spanish quarter, Stanley meets professor Elisabetta Moro, who takes him to the last authentic fried pizza maker, Fernanda’s. Stanley embarks on a whirlwind tour to find the freshest mozzarella and the best San Marzano tomatoes with Enzo Coccia, the proud king of Neapolitan pizza, to learn the secret art of arguably the world’s best pizza. 

The local Roma population have joined forces with the Neapolitans, and Stanley samples their mouth-watering culinary fusions before continuing his journey to the island of Ischia and the beautiful Amalfi Coast to revisit some spectacular regional dishes. 

Neapolitans have survived volcanoes, earthquakes, pandemics, war and poverty. In defiant life-affirming responses, they have given the world incredible dishes to be shared and enjoyed by billions. 

A RAW Production for CNN Original Series"*

And it was all it promised to be.

Location; Italy

Picture; Naples from the collection of Saul Simpson, 2018

*Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0bncnd5/stanley-tucci-searching-for-italy-series-1-1-naples-and-the-amalfi-coast

Pictures with secrets ........ and stories

 Now I am always fascinated by pictures which challenge you to uncover their secrets.

They are usually ones where there are few clues to where they were taken with no date and often shed no light on the identities of the people who stare back at you.

And that is pretty much what we have here from a collection of images which belong to David Kennedy.

The originals were 4 by 5 glass negatives and date from sometime around the end of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century.

Some are of street scenes, others of men and women at work and include a fair number showing life on board a selection of working ships.

They range from causally posed scenes to ones where the photographer has caught his subjects fully occupied and perhaps unaware that they are being photographed.

Amongst these are a few which may even be family members including this one which is a favourite of mine which is one of two.

In the first the mother is staring down at her baby and in the second she smiles back at the camera while in both the photographer is caught in the mirror.

There are no clues as to where they were taken but in one there is a reference to Ostend and a few carry the names of hotels and restaurants, added to which there is a very distinctive church  all of which should help.

And I am always reminded of "Shooting the Past" which was a television drama, by Stephen Poliakoff first shown in 1999.  

The plot revolves around a huge photographic collection dating back to the 19th century, which has been acquired by an American corporation as part of the purchase of a Victorian mansion.  

The executives have no interest in the pictures, but two of the custodians set out to save the images by persuading the Americans of the importance of the pictures.  

This they do by researching the stories behind the some of the photographs.

What the two uncover gets to the heart of how photographs can tell stories about the lives of people, which can be incredibly revealing and fascinating.

Pictures; by courtesy of David Kennedy

*Shooting the Past, Stephen Poliakoff, 1999, and staring,  Timothy Spall and Lindsay Duncan 

Madge Addy .... nurse and spy ..... the remarkable story ... online to watch

 Now any one who missed the talk on Madge Addy can catch it online.

Chris Hall, the plaque and the book

She was a remarkable woman who served as a nurse on the Repbulican side in the Spanish Civil War, went on to be an Allied spy in occuppied France during the Second World War, and for a brief time worked in Chorlton at 34 Manchester Road, where there is a plaque commemorating her life.

Chris has a light engaging style of public speaking, coupled with a deep knowledge of Madge and a deep respect for the woman.

Writing the book was not without its problems, especially in the early stages when information on Mage's life was sparce.

Madge in Marseilles, during the last World War

But sheer solid and painstaking research coupled with a few lucky breaks gave the background, and the result is an excellent biography which places her in the context of the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent conflict with an added bonus of details of the lives and contributions of other woman, some of who have also been ignored by history.

Pictures; Chris Hall, the plaque and the book from the collection of Chris Hall

*Madge Addy, the talk by Chris Hall to Chorlton Good Neighnours, February 3rd, 2021, https://youtu.be/ZF6B0OFvmzQ

Our Friends in the North .......... revisiting the drama which spanned my growing up and much more

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, 2010

Now I always think it is a bit odd to watch a period you have lived through presented as drama, more so when many of the big events were played out as a backdrop to your own life.

And so it is with Our Friends in the North which was produced by the BBC in 1995 and charts the personal and political fortunes of four people from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.*

The drama spans thirty years from the summer of 1964 opening with the bright optimism of the 60s, moving on to the class conflicts of the 1970s and 80s and drawing in much more along the way.

I was just fourteen in 1964, still very much at school and just beginning to form my own ideas about politics, and what I really liked in music but with no thoughts about my own future.

Labour Election Poster, 1966

Two years later I had joined the Labour Party worked in the General Election and started at one of the big show comprehensives in south east London.

And the succeeding decades for me were spent in Manchester and briefly in the North East playing a very small walk on part in some of the big events featured in the drama and bringing up a family

I watched it at the time and have begun watching it again and it has the power to take me directly back to that time.

Of course all dramas will telescope events, gloss over some issues and may even get some things a tad wrong but I have never been one to dismiss them out of hand, so having watched two episodes I am hooked.

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne or more strictly Gateshead was where my father was born and just a little further south is Seaham Harbour and Sunderland where I spent some very happy times and at  Peterlee where I was briefly employed knocking wooden boxes together in the Tudor Crisp factory.

So it rather does have the lot.

And that is all I want to say at present.

Pictures; Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, 2010, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and 1966 Labour election poster, courtesy of the Labour Party, https://shop.labour.org.uk/products/

*Our Friends in the North, BBC Television Production, 1995

A story of a remarkable women ..... Madge Addy ..... nurse and spy ..... today

Now I am looking forward to hearing Chris Hall talk on Madge Addy at Chorlton Good Neighbours today at 1.30pm.

She was a shadowy figure, who worked as a nurse on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War and went on to work for the SOE during the last World War.

But her story and in particular her time as a spy was barely known, but now thanks to Chris it is out in the open.

Before the last world war she lived in Chorlton and a blue plaque commemmorating her time here was unveiled back in 2018 by the Lord Mayor. 

In July of last year, Chris published his book on this remarkable woman.

All of which leaves me just to post a link to the zoom meeting.

I heard Chris speak on Ms Addy at the Library in September and it was an excellent description of her life, and the fascinating detective story which brought her out of the shadows.

The talk is hosted by Chorlton Good Neighbours and will be available at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88259914720?pwd=WXVwWUFBZERiOWR2QzZOTjU4amtzdz09 Meeting ID: 882 5991 4720 Passcode: 050850 at 1.30pm

*Chorlton Good Neighbours, https://chorltongoodneighbours.org/

The dark and messy goings on in Imperial Rome ....... back on my telly after 46 years

Now I am the first to admit that television dramas are not the most reliable way to learn history, for all the obvious reasons and recently said so.*

But done well they can offer up something, and with the passage of time become historical pieces, showing us how thought about a period in the past.

So last night I started on the box set of I Claudius which our Polly got me for Christmas.  The television series was first broadcast by the BBC in 1976.**

It tells the story of the first five Roman Emperors from Augustus through to Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.

And wanders across a murky period of political murders, family warfare, heaps of casual sexual peccadillos, as well as incest.

At its heart is the study of one family's manipulation of people and politics to establish an Imperial dynasty.

It was based on two novels by Robert Graves, the first of which carried the same title as the TV series and the second which was called Claudius the God. 

I Claudius was published in 1934, and its sequel the following year and both were a success.  The story lines are fictional but are based on events and description which are drawn from historical accounts by the Roman historians, Suetonius and Tacitus.

I must have been just 16 when I came across Tacitus whose surviving accounts included a biography of Agricola his father in law who was the Roman general, as well accounts of campaigns in Britain and Germany and the politic of Rome.

Suetonius I came  to later, and his book The Twelve Caesars is as my Wikipedia tells me,  “is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire.

The work, written in AD 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, was the most popular work of Suetonius, at that time Hadrian's personal secretary, and is the largest among his surviving writings. It was dedicated to a friend, the Praetorian prefect Gaius Septicius Clarus.

The Twelve Caesars was considered very significant in antiquity and remains a primary source on Roman history.

The book discusses the significant and critical period of the Principate from the end of the Republic to the reign of Domitian; comparisons are often made with Tacitus, whose surviving works document a similar period”.***

I will have read it around 1976 and the fun was to match this source with the two books and of course the telly series.

And now 46 years on I have to say that the television series has stood the test of time.  

True, some of the sets look a bit clunky but like many a Shakespeare play the magic is in the words, stories, and of course the acting.

There was a first-rate cast, some of whom were distinguished actors, while others were just setting out.and with a script written by an accomplished writer, it all came together.

And that is that.

Location Rome, and the Empire

Pictures; replica of a statue of the Emperor Augustus, Rome, and bits of ancient Rome much knocked about, 2009, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* La sposa, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/01/travelling-italian-history-with-la-sposa.html

**I Claudius - Complete BBC Series (5 Disc Box Set) [1976] [DVD]

***The Twelve Caesars, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Caesars

The story behind the picture

Now I have always been fascinated by the stories which sit beside old photographs.

Rarely do you get the full story and more often than not much is left in the shadows.

But not so this picture which is one of the many that are now being revealed for the first time in four decades.

They belong to a huge collection of images that I took in 1978 through into the mid 80s using old fashioned film, smelly chemicals and a dark room.

Most never became prints and for those forty years sat in the cellar as negatives and after the enlarger and chemicals were thrown out remained just negatives.

But now I have one of those clever scanners and the software which do the trick in seconds, and so as you do, I have been playing; selecting strips at random and discovering all sorts.

Many are of London, with a lot more of demonstrations, when a man with a camera was not regarded with suspicion.

And that brings me to the picture.

It will date from 1979 or 1980/81 when some of us seemed constantly to be on a demonstration, be it against cuts in public spending, the rising unemployment figures, or the march of the Far Right peddling their message of racism and intolerance and later the installation of Cruise Missiles in Britain.

This one was Manchester, and it will have been an anti cuts demonstration.

The negative was chosen by chance, but what I was not expecting was that it included a picture of Malcolm selling newspaper.

I first met Malcolm when we were both on the same degree course.

By his own admission he had travelled far, from being a Moral Rearmer in the 1960s to embracing Socialism in the earlier ‘70s.

The journey took him via the Communist Party to the International Socialist Party and by degree into the Labour Party.

We lost touch with each other in the 1980s and only recently did I learn he had died.

Now given that I was born in the first half of the last century losing touch and later learning of the death of friends is becoming commonplace, so I am rather pleased that this image of Malcolm has come to light, leading me to reflect on that friendship which was never dull and more than once filled with a bizarre outcome.

Location; Manchester



Picture; a demonstration; circa 1980, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Watching the Edwardians ............. moving images from the early 20th century

I now have my own copy of some Mitchell & Kenyon short films and they are a wonderful introduction to the world I often write about in the early years of the the last century.

Most of the time the stories are drawn from still images  but these short films vividly take me to the early 20th century.

They were often  made in the morning and shown in the afternoon and simply record the way we lived.

“The Mitchell & Kenyon film company was a pioneer of early commercial movies based in Blackburn in Lancashire at the start of the 20th century. 

They were originally best known for minor contributions to early fictional narrative film and Boer War dramatisation films, but the discovery in 1994 of a hoard of film negatives led to restoration of the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection, the largest surviving collection of early non-fiction actuality films in the world. 

This collection provides a fresh view of Edwardian Britain and is an important resource for historians.”*

I had seen some of them on television but was always doing other things, so I was over the moon when I came across Electric Edwardians** which is a collection of their material released by the BFI.

"Probably the most exciting film discovery of recent times, the films of Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon were commissioned by travelling exhibitors at the dawn of the twentieth century for screening in town halls, at village ftes or local fairs. 

Advertised as 'local films for local people', the audience paid to see their neighbours, children, family and themselves on the screen, glimpsed at local football matches, leaving work, marching in civic processions or enjoying the annual works holidays.

The films of Mitchell & Kenyon take us on a tour of everyday life in Edwardian Britain. They have been identified and researched by Dr Vanessa Toulmin of the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield. 

The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon, the hugely successful BBC TV series, subsequently released on DVD by BFI Video, introduced audiences to these miraculous views of the past. Now this new DVD offers the opportunity to explore the Collection in greater depth.

The material is taken from 28 hours of footage and represents a cross-section of the subjects covered in the Collection. 

From factory gates to football matches, the leaving of Liverpool to the leaving of work, the workers on holiday and at play, it provides an unparalleled opportunity to see the world through the eyes of the working communities of the time.

The films are grouped into five sections: Youth and Education, The Anglo-Boer War, Workers, High Days and Holidays and People and Places; a total of 35 full-length films in all, plus five 'hidden' items. 

They are set to a specially commissioned score by Sheffield-based duo In The Nursery and presented in a digipack, with extensive extras offering much background material.”***








Pictures; from Electric Edwardians

* Mitchell & Kenyon, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_and_Kenyon

** Electric Edwardians, Published/distributed by BFI, ISBN/EAN: 5035673006214,

*** Mitchell, Sagar; Kenyon, James, B.F.I, http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_107.html

The classic Italian film .......Ladri di biciclette / Bicycle Thieves ....... coming soon

Now, this is one of those stories that combines my membership of the Dante Society, with my passion for films and where I live.*

And along the way highlights the work of our own Chorlton Film Institute.**

So that just leaves me to announce that on December 19th, here in Chorlton is a showing of that powerful Italian film  Ladri di biciclette / Bicycle Thieves.

“This landmark 1948 Italian film is widely regarded as among the best films of all time. Ricci, an unemployed man in post-WWII Italy, finally gets a good job - for which he needs a bicycle. But soon his bicycle is stolen…...

In 1950 it won a special Academy Honorary Award as ‘most outstanding foreign language film’ six years before the category was added to the Awards.

The film is presented in association with Societa’ Dante Alighieri, with a short introduction in English by Dr Silvana Serra, PhD in Cinema, Event Organiser for Societa' Dante Alighieri, and Member of the Selection Committee for International Short Film Festivals. 

Ladri di biciclette / Bicycle Thieves is in Italian with English subtitles and has a running time of  time 1 hour and 35 minutes approx.”.*

So that is it.

Venue: St Clement's Church, Edge Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 9AE

Date; Thursday December 19

 Tickets are £5 - on the door only, no pre-booking or reservations.

Refreshments available including Panettone.

 Doors open at 20:10 – Introduction and Film starts at 20:30; film certificate is U


Location; Chorlton



Pictures; Scenes from the film, 1947, and the Dante Society in the Square, 2017, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*SOCIETA' DANTE ALIGHIERI – MANCHESTER
Il mondo in italiano – Promoting Italian Culture in the world since 1889

Email: dante@newfuture.org   

Website: www.dantemanchester.org.uk



**Chorlton Film Institute  www.chorltonfilminstitute.co.uk     

The First Men In The Moon .......... one to watch

"An exhilarating and immersive theatre production based on the novel by HG Wells. Adapted by Brian M Clarke.

Using traditional theatre with innovative pre-filmed elements you will be transported along with “Cavor” and “Bedford” our intrepid adventurers on a Voyage lunar extraordinaire.

This well received production was first premiered in 2018 at the Anthony Burgess Foundation. Now makes it’s first revival for the Chorlton Arts Festival".*

Saturday September 28th, 2019 19:30 – 21:30 BST

Location; Wilbraham Saint Ninian's United Reformed Church**


*Wilbraham Saint Ninian's United Reformed Church, Egerton Road South, Manchester M21 0XJ

**Chorlton Arts Festival, http://chorltonartsfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Arts-Festival-Programme-with-Listings-Sept-1-2019-WEB-2.pdf

Visions of Sardinia ............. films from the Dante Society .............. today

Now here is one not to miss, hence the advance warning ....... from The Dante Society.

Visioni Sardea

"A selection of short films about the people of Sardinia. We will discover how contemporary issues affect their lives – In Italian with English subtitles.

Introduction in English by Silvana Serra

Free admission

The screening will be followed by a social gathering with Sardinian wine and nibbles

Sunday September 22nd at 4.30pm       

Cross Street Chapel – Cross Street Manchester M2 1NL

Societa’ Dante Alighieri and Comites Manchester are pleased to invite you to the following screening

To allow us to organise the seats and nibbles please book in advance at dante@newfuture.org

The Societa’ Dante Alighieri has a branch in our city.*

“It was established in 1996, and the Manchester branch is one of the Society’s many branches around the world.

The Society’s headquarters are in Rome, and its mission is to promote the Italian language and Italian culture abroad.

Membership is open to both Italians and non-Italians, and members and supporters enjoy a wide programme of events throughout the year.

Members and non-members alike are welcome to attend.”*

So that is it.

Location; Manchester


Pictures; courtesy of the The Societa’ Dante Alighieri, and from the collection of Andrew Simpson


*The Societa’ Dante Alighieri, https://dantemanchester.org.uk/

Sardinia ........... a selection of films hosted by the Dante Society

Now here is one not to miss, hence the advance warning ....... from The Dante Society.

Visioni Sardea

"A selection of short films about the people of Sardinia. We will discover how contemporary issues affect their lives – In Italian with English subtitles.

Introduction in English by Silvana Serra

Free admission

The screening will be followed by a social gathering with Sardinian wine and nibbles

Sunday September 22nd at 4.30pm       

Cross Street Chapel – Cross Street Manchester M2 1NL

Societa’ Dante Alighieri and Comites Manchester are pleased to invite you to the following screening

To allow us to organise the seats and nibbles please book in advance at dante@newfuture.org

The Societa’ Dante Alighieri has a branch in our city.*

“It was established in 1996, and the Manchester branch is one of the Society’s many branches around the world.

The Society’s headquarters are in Rome, and its mission is to promote the Italian language and Italian culture abroad.

Membership is open to both Italians and non-Italians, and members and supporters enjoy a wide programme of events throughout the year.

Members and non-members alike are welcome to attend.”*

So that is it.

Location; Manchester


Pictures; courtesy of the The Societa’ Dante Alighieri, and from the collection of Andrew Simpson


*The Societa’ Dante Alighieri, https://dantemanchester.org.uk/

When Lowry came to Chorlton

Now I have no idea if L.S. Lowry came to Chorlton.

He is buried in Southern Cemetery which Peter says almost counts and it wouldn’t have been that far to travel over from Salford or from Mottram in Longdendale which was his home for twenty-eight years.

And inspired by the idea that Mr Lowry might have come here, Peter chose to paint a series of pictures in the style of the artist outside some of our well known drinking haunts which I called If Mr Lowry came to Chorlton.*

Of course back in the 1950s and ‘60’s the Horse and Jockey looked a lot different and the Sedge Lynn was still a snooker hall but if they were as they are now this is how he might have painted them.

So with that in mind and with Mr Lowry’s birthday coming up on November 1st, Peter is exhibiting his collection of Lowry inspired paintings at Tutku Cafe, on Barlow Moor Rd, to coincide with anniversary of the artist’s birth.*

Peter has added that “L. S. Lowry is best known for his matchstick men and industrial landscape paintings, he was a famous Manchester artist, born in Stretford on November 1st 1887.

 His father died in 1932 leaving a great deal of debt, which drove his mother into depression. She took to her bed until she died in 1939. Lowry became a rent collector which provided a stable income and much of his later life was spent looking after his sickly mother. 

It wasn’t until the last 25 years of his life that he became famous. 
He died in 1976 and is buried in Southern Cemetery.
        

As part of my Homage to... series, and to celebrate his birthday, I have decided to create paintings in his style, or perhaps I should say, in a style that he may have chosen if he had access to modern painting techniques.
        
I have decided to create an exhibition of paintings reimagining what it would be like if he had strayed from the industrial landscapes of Salford and taken a stroll through Chorlton-cum-Hardy".

So that just leaves you to pop along to the Tutku Cafe, and see for yourself.

Location; sort of Chorlton

Painting; If Mr Lowry came to Chorlton, © 2017 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

* If Mr Lowry came to Chorlton, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/If%20Mr%20Lowry%20came%20to%20Chorlton

** Tutku Cafe, 428 Barlow Moor Rd, Chorlton, Manchester M21 8AD,  0161 222 3365

First posted in November 2017