Bookology
Magritte a Life
Author: Alex Danchev, finished by Sarah Whitfield
Published: Profile Books, November 2021
Celebrated Belgian surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967) was famously opaque. His public image—the average man in suit and hat, dwelling in the suburban anonymity of Brussels—seemed designed to deflect inquiry into his personal life. He refused to explain his paintings, which would have dispelled their poetic mystery. This book is the first major biography for our time.
Slim Aaron’s Style
Author: Shawn Waldron and Kate Betts
Published: Abraham Chronicle Books, October 2021
Slim Aarons built a career documenting the lives of the rich and beautiful. “I did the people in their clothes that became the fashion.” Aarons’s incredibly influential photographs of high society are still a source of inspiration.
The Future of Money
Author: Eswar S. Prasad
Published: Harvard University Press, September 2021
Eswar Prasad explains, why the world of finance is at the threshold of major disruption that will affect corporations, bankers, states, and indeed all of us. The transformation of money will fundamentally rewrite how ordinary people live. The changes will revolutionize how we invest, trade, insure, and manage risk.
Matrix
Author: Lauren Groff
Published: Riverhead Books, September 2021
Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease.
The Holiday Times
Vegetarian Holidays
Varanasi, known as one of the world’s holiest cities, India’s spiritual capital is now luring culinary pilgrims as it transforms into a vegetarian paradise. The 2019 meat ban has fostered creativity among a new generation of chefs in Varanasi
Photo@narvikk/Getty Images via BBC
Florence
Plan your next visit to Florence, and include your kids. Most children may wince at the thought of being dragged around the world’s biggest museums, but the Uffizi has redoubled efforts to guarantee their youngest visitors leave satisfied. UffiziKids is the eye-catching new brand incorporating the museum’s existing children’s initiatives
photo@via artnewspaper
Transformational Travel
It is the latest buzzword in the travel world right now. Holidaying with a purpose is the new switching off. Intentionally traveling to stretch, learn and grow into new ways of being and engaging with the world.
This and That
The most expensive necklace
A stunning 180 carats of diamonds set in platinum. Its centrepiece is an 80-carat oval, flawless, D-color “Empire Diamond.” The diamond was ethically sourced in Botswana, cut and polished in Israel and set in Tiffany’s workshop in New York City. It’s the most expensive piece ever created by Tiffany.
Photo@MAXIMDENISENKO via Townandcountry
Oman
The Sultanate of Oman will participate in the 59th Venice Biennale, making it the first country to debut a national pavilion at the prestigious exhibition since Ghana in 2019. The exhibition had been postponed a year due to the pandemic and is now scheduled to run from April into November 2022.
A symphony orchestra costs less than one footballer today. What legacy do we expect to leave our children. Culture does not exist to make profit but to educate. If this does not change, superficial and very dangerous people will prevail in future generations
Ricardo Muti
Watch
The Unforgivable is a Netflix drama starring Academy Award-winners Sandra Bullock and Viola Davis. When Ruth (Bullock) is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime, she attempts to rebuild her life but faces severe judgment from the place she once called home.
Turkish Drama
The Club, released in 2021, is a period drama, set in the political turbulent Istanbul of the 1950s. The Netflix series centres around a mother with a checkered past and a complex mother-daughter relationship.
Flat for rent
In case you are looking for a place in New York. Holly Golightly´s flat is for rent. The house at 169 East 71st Street, with its sparse decor that features a well-stocked bar, Cat, a bathtub-turned-sofa is for rent. So next time you are in New York check with Inspirato, for your very own breakfast at Tiffany´s.
My dear Friends,
May you have a relaxed and joyous festive season, and a fabulous new year
yours Harper