David Suchet as Poirot. Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. All have been on my lifelong menu for mental comfort food. Tonight, Poirot was served up deliciously in the 2008 ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons. The episode takes place at an all girls’ school. Early on, my thirst for traces of Pre-Raphaelites…
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#WorldBookDay Experiment with Time
This book was a thoughtful and loving gift from my boyfriend Scott, who had never heard of it, but understood exactly why I wanted it and tracked down the perfect copy. Perfect because it was from the right time period to give me the same tactile experience that Agatha Christie might have had when she read it. I’ve wanted this book…
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A Wondrous Pursuit
Yesterday was LizzieSiddal.com‘s 15th anniversary! February 1st is a happy memory for me; it’s a day that represents an idea, the beginning of a pursuit that has become something more fulfilling than I could have imagined. Over the span of fifteen years, some truly mad and wonderful people have joined in to help share art and wombats all over social media.…
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The Artist’s Soul
‘See me, and know me as I am.’ At the age of twenty-one, Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote the short story Hand and Soul, which was published in The Germ, a short-lived magazine created by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Not only does the story offer a glimpse into the young Rossetti’s beliefs and aspirations, it seems to be the only work of…
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Tangled Up in Bloom
“Bloom where you are planted” is an adage we’ve all probably heard, and the sentiment is a positive one: do your best no matter what your circumstances. Clytie (above), painted by Evelyn De Morgan in the late 1880s, is perhaps an extreme example. De Morgan’s image is stunning, yet underneath that floral beauty is a darker story. You see, she…
