Broadsides – A collection of bits and pieces
"Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a blog”
I was a skinny kid. You wouldn’t believe it if you saw me today. But I was really skinny, a proper seven-stone weakling. I was forever getting sand kicked in my face. Even in kindergarten, in the sand pit, the other... Continue Reading →
Traffic wardens can be rather grumpy sods. It’s a job that attracts the grumpy. In the early days, and it probably still is the case, they were employed by Police Authorities. Which is almost certainly why they adopted the blue military style uniform. Being grumpy sods they often had more grievances than the norm. And... Continue Reading →
It must have been the summer of 1961. Certainly before the Beatles. The music that year was all Dean Martin and the Drifters, or itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. https://youtu.be/ICkWjdQuK7Q And I recall being in love with a girl in the 4th form at Queens’s school in Rheindalen, Carol, and constantly singing a... Continue Reading →
Joesph Bueys, ex Stuka bomber pilot turned rather Loony professor of Art and acclaimed conceptual/performance artist, collected leftist radicals as bees collect pollen. He thrived on their fresh blood, wanted to display them, encourage them to be creative, give them a platform, develop them, and turn them into honey to feed the left wing communist creative world... Continue Reading →
Nottingham has been sending fighting troops to Ireland for over 800 years. There is a reference in the 1363 Rolls of Edward III calling upon the Sheriff of Nottingham to " select 40 of the best and bravest of Archers in Notts and Derby, to assemble at Liverpool, furnished with bow, arrows and other arms,... Continue Reading →
60 outstanding Picasso’s gathered from around the galleries of the world and chosen to show the influence of Picasso upon Modern British Art and Artists. Placed between, amongst and about the Picasso’s are the works of those he so influenced. Henry Moore and Picasso; David Hockney and Picasso; Francis Bacon and Picasso; Wyndham Lewis and... Continue Reading →
A day trip north to St. Andrews. A lot of Americans in strange costume carrying clubs. Unknown to me in advance, and by great good fortune there is an Exhibition of the work of Samuel John Peploe running at the St. Andrews municipal museum. One of my all-time favourite artists, Peploe was the leading Scottish... Continue Reading →
An old school photograph showing my brother Patrick McGuiggan, (sitting in the centre holding the class identifying blackboard), always the most photogenic member of the McGuiggan family, at Toton Primary school in Nottinghamshire sparked a fond tale of revenge....’ In the rear of the photograph is the school Headmaster. Sutton. He was a fairly brutal... Continue Reading →
Broadsides - A collection of bits and pieces 