Ismene Brown

Searched back through Blue Sky for this.
Which is one of the best things I saw all year in any medium.

👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

‘She Saved Him’: The Unacknowledged Role of Ekaterina Furtseva in Nikita Khrushchev’s Defeat of the ‘Anti-Party Group’ in 1957 Nikita Khrushchev’s survival in the Kremlin coup attempt of June 1957, a watershed in the post-Stalin Soviet era, is generally narrated in Western history as his personal triumph. Early reports, ho...

My new article on the only female Soviet leader Ekaterina Furtseva & her extraordinarily bold hand in rescuing Khrushchev & the USSR from a return to Stalinism is the 2nd fruit of my very late, but immensely satisfying university education. Quite readable withal. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TRPSI...

I’m quite enjoying the 180 turn on a six pence from “you’ve wrecked the economy and created a black hole” to “there was no black hole and this is even worse”.

Winn’s rebuttal of the queried illness includes this 2015 medical opinion which is very far from definitive, and nothing like a “terminal” diagnosis. Though that was the premise of the 2018 book and sequels. Chloehadj looks on firm ground.

The real Salt Path: how the couple behind a bestseller le... Penniless and homeless, the Winns found fame and fortune with the story of their 630-mile walk to salvation. We can reveal it was far from the truth

I spent months on this investigation and gathered docs from the UK courts, Land Registry and a French local authority, to show that Raynor and Moth Winn's story is not as they claim. @tortoisemedia.bsky.social @observeruk.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

No, this is the most telling paragraph - from the medical letter supposedly giving his terminal diagnosis. The doc wasn’t definitive. “Very mild”, if CBS at all.

BBC Radio 4 - Blackout Ballet Ismene Brown uncovers the story of Mona Inglesby and International Ballet.

There is a fabulous BBC Radio 4 documentary from 2012, Blackout Ballet, made by @pipparitchie.bsky.social and presented by @ismeneb.bsky.social about International Ballet. It’s still available in the UK on BBC Sounds.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

Giltburg, Bournemouth SO, Wigglesworth, Portsmouth Guildhall review - seemingly effortless élan A time must come again when British orchestras return to complete Tchaikovsky ballet scores in concert, as in the BBC glory days of the great Rozhdestvensky. We were halfway there with The Nutcracker'...

★★★★★ Giltburg, Bournemouth SO, Wigglesworth, Portsmouth Guildhal

@davidnice.bsky.social salutes the heart and soul of a new conductor/orchestra partnership.

Lena Zavaroni’s parents??? Where the hell were they?

Parents??

For context, here's Kemi Badenoch pictured with the Spectator's new editor

A tentative suggestion for a Christmas gift? So far I have accumulated 0.62 euros in royalties for my Shaw Bros Vol 3 fund. There is still some way to go before reaching my target.

I play the Georgian song Suliko.

Bach Mendelssohn Festival, Part I, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra review - the flame that never died “I am not better than my fathers.” Cracked, pained, occasionally rasping, rising to a fearsome roar then subsiding to a throaty whisper, Sir Bryn Terfel’s still-formidable bass-baritone made the great...

★★★★ Bach Mendelssohn Festival, Part I, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

A deep dive into some heavyweight programming with @boydtonkin.bsky.social

Another described a wife’s trauma at seeing husband dying as so unbearable she shd not be put through it. I know it’s the living who suffer from a suicide but that isn’t the central issue.

Any Answers had a man with terminal cancer saying he was up & down from intolerable pain to feeling ok within hours, & anyone seeing him in one period wd not have whole picture. He was against it.

I’m an atheist irritated by the misappropriation and distraction of religion as a factor in the moral argument. Listening to Any Answers I wonder if it is living relatives not wanting to suffer vicariously who transfer their feelings to the dying ones who are feeling something different.

The Last of the Cromwells - The History of Parliament The current BBC production of Wolf Hall: the Mirror and the Light, the last of Hilary Mantel’s novels charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, is a

historyofparliament.com/2024/11/28/t...

The Coming Thing Buy The Coming Thing by Billson, Anne (ISBN: 9781544247816) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

THE COMING THING (kindle or paperback)
"a wild, unholy hybrid of Rosemary's Baby, The Omen and Bridget Jones's diary... rich with barbed and telling observations... A hugely satisfying treat"
"one of the most original horror novels I've read in a very long time... also one of the funniest"

It’s an Exeter elm (so called because they were first discovered near Exeter in 1826)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulmus_'...

Known for its twisting erect branches and quirky balloon shape it’s rare and an exciting find in a park on a #treetrail

@treeside.bsky.social @treeshepherd.bsky.social

Protests continue in the centre of Tbilisi. What we saw Friday night. Camera Anton Chicherov Producer @bentavener.bsky.social

Billson Film Database: reviews of over 4000 films Billson Film Database: reviews of over 4000 films : Billson, Anne: Amazon.co.uk: Books

BILLSON FILM DATABASE (kindle or paperback)
"A quite amazing, one-of-its-kind collection of brief, humorous and insightful film reviews"
"I would love to argue movies with this woman in a bar that stayed open late"
"The wittiest & funniest film reviews I've ever read"
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1546443118

Thank you.

There is something at the heart of this story that doesn’t add up, legally speaking.

Quick fraud lecture for y’all.

🧵

Most people’s gut feeling is that they don’t want to suffer. In a good health system, ensuring that they don’t suffer, and live longer than they were predicted to, is the gold standard to aim for. Palliative medics are brilliant and undersung.

Helpful.

This is all about gut feeling, & my gut feeling is that if I am seriously ill (and/or old, disabled, vulnerable) I want to see medical staff as 100% focused on assisting me to get better - not on also gauging when to put another option in my head. No to this. Yes to more info on palliative care.

A terrific theory that pairs well with the Economist's terrific and terrifying chart of Musk's tweeting.

HUGE haul this week - 12 fun-packed classical CDs, carefully curated and dissected. theartsdesk.com/classical-mu... Thanks to @bernardhughes.bsky.social #classical #brahms #britten #elgar #walton #vivaldi