News & Notes
San Marco news, hot off the presses.
Fare Thee Well
As promised, here is the first in my series of blogs about 1816: the year in which Byron travelled to Venice. 1816 didn’t get off to a bright start for Byron, despite the birth of his daughter, Augusta Ada, who had arrived towards the end of the old year, on 10th...
Happy 1816
1816 - exactly two hundred years ago this year - was a significant year for Lord Byron. His marriage, contracted just one short year earlier, on 2nd January 1815, crumbled into dust. His wife left him, taking his one month-old daughter with her: he would never see...
A New Friend
I have got a new friend, the finest in the world... Walking through Venice the other day, I saw this wonderful sight next to the place that sells presepio figures at San Giovanni Crisostomo. Being the sort of person I am, I immediately thought of Byron. Byron loved...
A Calculating Woman
"Lady Byron is much obliged by your enquiries and both she and the little girl are going on as well as possible," Byron wrote in a letter dated December 1815. Two hundred years ago today, 10th December 1815, Byron’s daughter Ada was born. Barely five weeks later the...
A fan letter to Byron
I recently had the great pleasure of spending four days with a wonderful group of people who were here in Venice on a Readers’ Tour of our city and its literary associations, organised by my dear friend Anna Dreda, the proprietor of Wenlock Books. We visited...
Introducing: Byron-Venice
VENICE - BYRON, by Anne Amison, is a new publication on the English Milord and his travels through Europe in 1826 to reach Venice, where he stayed. His life, loves and interests whilst he was there. Available from 17th November, it's being very well-received by both...
Anne Amison presents Byron and the Shelleys in Italy
Author Anne Amison will be speaking at the Keats-Shelley House in Rome on 8th October, 2015 at 17.00 hours. Her talk is entitled "Byron, The Shelleys, Italy". The Keats-Shelley House is located at the famous Piazza di Spagna, no 26, 00187, Roma. Her book Byron-Venice,...
Ja Tozhe Hochu, Passion & Un Giorno Speciale
Ja Tozhe Hochu (Me Too) by Russian Alexej Balabanov. Very dark Russian story, most people were trying to work it out afterwards. At one point again caught up on some sleep. Rating: 6/10 Passion by Brian De Palma, another US biggie, reckon it's a strong contender,...
Sinapupunan, Thy Womb & The Company You Keep
Sinapupunan, Thy Womb, by Phillipine director Brillante Mendoza, a gentle & touching story of a wife willing to let her husband marry a younger woman in order to have a child. Seems simple but as it is set in one of the few Muslim island communities in an...
O Gebo e a Sombra & Bella Addormentata
O Gebo e a Sombra, by 105 year Portugese director Manoel de Oliveira. Very simple, like a stage set, measured but slow. I fell asleep again! However no sex nor violence! Rating: 5/10. Bella addormentata (Sleeping Beauty) by Italian Marco Bellocchio, a well known...
