Guest Blog – Beckett’s odd things

“What’s wrong with that bed, Joe?” — Samuel Beckett, Eh Joe (1965) There is something conspicuously odd about many of the everyday objects depicted in Samuel Beckett’s work. Items that are typically associated with the mundane, that usually sink into…

The National Monument of Scotland

In the November 2014 edition of Architectural Heritage John Gifford explores the history, origin and alternative designs of the National Monument of Scotland. Twelve Doric columns stand on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, witnesses to ambition, patriotism, love of the arts, respect…

War and Christmas

Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus! [Merry Christmas!] is a picturebook written by two Latvian refugees while displaced during the Second World War. The book, with its vibrant pictures and personal representation of the exile experience challenges existing children’s narratives of Christmas, war and…