Category Archives: Culture

Remembering John Playfair

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

On Saturday 23rd April 2016, over a hundred of John Playfair’s friends joined his family for a concert of clarinet music ranging from Mozart to Cole Porter held at St.Michael’s and All Angels church in Turnham Green, London. Here, in … Continue reading →

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A-level Drama in London.

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

Drama / Theatre Studies is an important area of study. It enriches the sixth form offer and provides students with opportunities to develop their cultural education, their understanding of the human condition, their confidence and ability to communicate well and work … Continue reading →

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‘Carthage’ by Joyce Carol Oates.

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

Joyce Carol Oates’ brilliant novel ‘Carthage’ carries the reader along on a compelling looping, zig-zag narrative which starts and finishes in the heart of a sympathetic comfortably-off family in the small upstate New York town of Carthage. Along the way, … Continue reading →

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A level minority report: Dance, Music, Philosophy.

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

I start from a belief that Dance, Music and Philosophy are wonderful A level subjects which should be accessible to sixth form students not too far from where they live as part of a broad educational offer. The published performance tables provide … Continue reading →

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Escher in Corsica.

Posted on January 30, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

The Dutch artist M.C.Escher (1898-1972) is well known for his meticulous geometric and ‘impossible’ prints, his optical distortions, his extreme viewpoints and his tessellated patterns which seem to move from two to three dimensions. His early work is perhaps less … Continue reading →

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Sebald in Corsica: ‘Campo Santo’.

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

Campo Santo is one of four short pieces with Corsican settings in W.G. Sebald’s collection given the same title. These were fragments for a book about Corsica which remained unfinished at his untimely death in a road accident in 2001. Campo Santo … Continue reading →

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Hadrian, the enlightened pre-enlightenment leader?

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

Marguerite Yourcenar’s wonderful novel Memoirs of Hadrian takes the form of a personal memoir written for the future Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius by the emperor Hadrian (76-138 CE) as he faces death. The book is a brilliant portrayal of a leader who … Continue reading →

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Learning by walking about.

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

It was just a walk; teachers and students following a circular 20 mile route around central London. It was also a personal challenge for each of us; to keep going, to keep up, to map-read, to learn new things and … Continue reading →

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Tamsin Oglesby’s ‘Future Conditional’

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

When a play is dismissed by the Daily Mail as ‘lefty tosh’ it’s probably going to be worth seeing. I enjoyed Tamsin Oglesby’s polemical ‘Future Conditional’ which was full of debate and far from one-sided. This pacey ensemble piece which … Continue reading →

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Seeking refuge in poetry

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

I am So I have left everything But I am something. I have left everyone But I am someone. I have left there But I am here. Something, someone, here, now. September 2015   Links to poems about the refugee … Continue reading →

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Diagnosis.

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

Doctor, I think I might have something quite serious. I must say you look fine, what are your symptoms? Well, I have this overwhelming feeling which just won’t go away. Go on… I can’t shake it off, it’s like a… … Continue reading →

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Utopia as the education of our desires

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

London’s Roundhouse hosted an evening of utopian propositions last week, jointly programmed with Compass. Those of us there were able to experience Penny Woolcock’s extraordinary Utopia installation and listen to Owen Jones and other social justice campaigners. I was particularly struck by the contribution of … Continue reading →

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Edward Lear in Corsica

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

Edward Lear (1812-1888) is probably best known for the limericks and nonsense rhymes of his Book of Nonsense (1846) but he was also an accomplished and well-travelled zoological, botanical and landscape artist. He was the twentieth of twenty-one children born into a middle-class family … Continue reading →

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Let Us Be Midwives! Sadako Kurihara

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

Let Us Be Midwives! An untold story of the atomic bombing by Sadako Kurihara, translated by Richard Minear Night in the basement of a concrete structure now in ruins. Victims of the atomic bomb jammed the room; It was dark—not … Continue reading →

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A Bauhaus education for the 21st century?

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

We are familiar with the clean functional lines of the influential modernist Bauhaus school of design founded in Weimar, Germany by Walter Gropius in 1919. The Bauhaus school was more than a training ground for designers, it was based on a … Continue reading →

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