Look 24 Dress, Christian Dior by John Galliano, Autumn/Winter 2004. If there is anything I learned last Saturday morning in the beautiful Christian Dior exhibition at the V&A, is that Dior really is the Designer of my Dreams. Firstly, it was a dream to get a ticket to the extended run of the sold out…
Continue reading ➞ A Tour of Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Even though I wax lyrical on every single platform about how much I love Jane Austen, I’ve never visited her house at Chawton or her grave in Winchester Cathedral – until this week. We went on a lovely trip to Hampshire and had a beautiful day (helped by the British sunshine) exploring Jane Austen’s House…
Continue reading ➞ Walking in the footsteps of Jane Austen in Hampshire
Wallington is a beautiful William and Mary period country house in the Northumberland countryside – the house as seen today, including the beautiful big clock tower you walk underneath as you enter the grounds, was largely remodelled by Sir Walter Calverley Blackett, who had inherited the house from his party-loving and debt-ridden uncle, Sir William…
Continue reading ➞ Pre-Raphaelites, Dragons and a Cabinet of Curiosity: A Visit to Wallington
I realised a couple of weeks ago that, even though I’ve spent plenty of time visiting galleries and museums in London, that I’d never actually been to the Wallace Collection. I have been meaning to go for ages, and decided that, last weekend, I had a free morning in London and it was time to…
Continue reading ➞ An Enquiring Mind: Manolo Blahnik at The Wallace Collection
A few weeks ago we went for a weekend in Budapest and I came away feeling like Budapest is one of the prettiest cities I’ve ever visited. So many of the buildings could be right out of a fairy tale, and the history of the city is also really interesting. It was a wonderful place…
A few weeks ago I went to visit my beautiful treasured friend who lives in Madrid and she took us to this absolutely incredible museum that I had never heard of before - Museo Cerralbo. Located close to the Temple de Debod, you would probably walk past it without realising the treasures inside. The museum…
Ever wondered what Rome was like in the eighteenth century, in the age of Grand Tourists, endless art shopping and constant archaeological excavation? Well here are the adventures of Henrietta Femor, the Countess of Pomfret, who took to the continent with her husband and two eldest daughters from 1738 to 1741. Henrietta detailed all of…
Continue reading ➞ A Wander round Eighteenth-Century Rome with a Georgian Lady
Last week I got to banish the January blues and Wednesday “hump day” in one fell swoop with a day trip to Paris with my sister. We got a nice and early Eurostar from London, ate croissants on the way there (to get us in the right mood of course!) and had a whirlwind day…
Continue reading ➞ A Visit to the Pompidou: The Day I Fell in Love with Matisse
Welcome to Bruges, possibly one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever visited. We took an overnight ferry from Hull to spend eight hours exploring the Christmas markets, shops and museums as an early Christmas present to ourselves. Here are some of our favourite places we visited around the city: Jan Van Eyck Square Jan…
Every year, Chatsworth House – somewhere you probably recognise from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, 2008’s The Duchess (the tale of the real ancestor of the current owners, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, wife of the fifth Duke) and 2013’s Death Comes to Pemberley – puts on the most beautiful Christmas displays around the house.…
