#doria in london

[ancientcharm]

Wall painting (fresco) around the niches of the columbarium - Scenes from mythology (Heracles ), everyday life (market, rural villa, picnic, bacchic thiasos ), idyllic landscapes with herdsmen, nilotic landscapes with pygmies, birds, animals, plants .

Late third style of pompeian wall painting, 1st century / ca. 50 AD- findspot: Rome, park of the Villa Doria Pamphilj, large columbarium.

London, British Museum.

Photos 3-8 : ArchaiOptix /C BY-SA 4.0 /Wikimedia Commons

[houseofbrat]

But their bills are astronomical. Just the upkeeping on the house alone, housekeepers, nannies, gardeners, cooks, repairs is costing them a few hundred thousand a month. Then there's the mortgage which costs another few hundred thousand. She's spending millions on PR even after getting dropped for being $2million in debt to Sunshine Sachs. The awards she's bought haven't come cheap either. The Gracie award is picking up clout on podcast land. But she has no projects at play that are actually generating money. She may be scrambling around trying to make an Archetypes 2, but she's not gonna get enough big names to interview and her name on its own sends people running for the hills. Spotify has yet to pick up another season though she's buying those awards to pitch hard. She has no source of future income (other than child support) and she's hustling. This is to say nothing of her legal fees, her personal assistants, her publicists, her agents, and (underpaying) the assholes she's got mailing out Starbucks cards at Archewell. I'm sure Doria's services don't come cheap either.  I mean, a bunch of nothing isn't going to do itself. I personally think Doria blackmails her daughter by threatening to tell the truth about who she is and how she didn't grow up like a black girl from Compton, but instead had a more privileged upbring that 80% of US citizens, regardless of their color. Doria also probably knows Meghan's shadiest and most sordid maneuvers to get where she is.  Doria stays silent in the background, but she's got stories to tell. And one wrong move from Meg, and they WON'T be the stories singing Meg's praises.  That's my theory anyway.

I also believe that I was right in December when I said Netflix is done with Meghan. The last thing left on their roster is The Heart of Invictus set to come out this summer, but I've heard it's being edited to focus on the athletes and occasionally Harry.  I've even heard that they may trash a lot of last year's footage, wait until this year's Düsseldorf games, and film those, Harry's-Wife-Free.  NF was reportedly unhappy with how the games suddenly focused on the ILBW, how she commandeered things, taking attention from the athletes and Harry, who's cause this is.

Remember that ridiculous kiss between her and Not-the-Heiry, and all her prancing around in couture (which she supposedly at least tried to bill to them) instead of wearing the standard issue festive polo and khakis/jeans, Well Netflix supposedly does and they supposedly don't like it. I always think of her sashaying around in Valentino while everyone else wore the Invictus clothing. It's such a stark comparison to how the other Royals function.

One of my favorite pictures of Wills and Kate is at the London Olympics. They're both wearing the clothing made for Olympics viewers, and in a rare show of affection, they are grabbing each other and smiling from ear to ear while staring downfield  cheering Team Great Britain.  They aren't eye fucking the cameras. They aren't wearing rictus grins and inserting themselves into ceremonies and celebrations where they don't belong. They're embracing, but their focus isn't on trying to make everyone believe how in love they are; their focus is on the games even as they embrace each other! They're dressed in their team colors focusing on THEIR TEAM.  The result is one of the best pictures of them I've ever seen. The soon-to-be-ex Mrs.Mountbatten Windsor looks like a fool at everything she does because she refuses to accept it's not about her. She can scream at, abuse, and gaslight Harry all she wants to, blaming their status as the laughingstock of the world on him, but she's the one who looks ridiculous and unlike Harry, she's the one running around looking ridiculous wearing a million dollar wardrobe.  I wish she'd get a clue but she's a narcissist, and she never will.

[sassyfrassboss]

I don’t know why (or how) I remembered this but does anyone else remember the actress Kelly Rutherford from the og Gossip Girl?

She got into a particularly acrimonious international custody case with her ex-husband after they split. Her ex had emigrated to the US during their marriage. After the divorce, in which they received 50/50 custody of their kids, Kelly’s team was thought to have snitched on her ex’s visa/immigration status and he ended up being deported from the US, maybe even banned from here.

However the courts still enforced 50/50 custody which meant that Kelly had to travel often with their sons to France so they could visit their father because he couldn’t come to the US. Eventually Kelly filed for sole custody saying she couldn’t keep taking the kids to France and she was broke from all the expenses. The court ended up saying “too bad” and sent the kids to live with their father (because he can’t be in the US), with now only Kelly being the one to travel back and forth all the time for her custody time.

The other quirk I remember about this case is that Kelly shopped jurisdictions. The divorce and original custody case was fought in NY. When she tried going for sole custody, she filed in CA but CA tossed the case because they didn’t have jurisdiction and sent it back to NY but NY also said they didn’t have jurisdiction anymore either and the case went to France, where the kids now lived full-time with their dad, who ruled in Dad’s favor.

Now I’m not saying this is what’s going to happen to Meghan and Harry but it’s an interesting parallel and possibly a warning story. We know there’s interest in Harry’s immigration status and we know that Meghan, as a narcissist, is capable of anything - if she gets desperate enough, who’s to say she won’t inform on Harry’s visa in hopes that he gets deported/blocked and she gets full custody of the meal tickets, but it probably won’t end in her favor. Just like it didn’t with Kelly.

I think Harry’s going to end up with the kids. Not sure of the nitty-gritty but I think their custody issues will end with Archie and Lili coming to the UK for boarding school and Meghan getting them from breaks and holidays. (I also see Meghan noping out of their lives for a chunk of time the same way Doria did and dollars to donuts, Meghan’s disappearing act will probably be for a new husband.)

I do remember this story because I thought her husband was HOT!

She was also put on the spot for parental alienation at one point and I think she tried to actually leave NYC or do something with the kids passports. It was all so super shady.

So as for H&M. This is why I think she will get some kind of apartment in London because I can see her being the "doting mother like Diana" and visiting her kids at their boarding schools and jetting all over.

What I keep going back and forth over is if Charles will pay her and $$$ for those kids. Like another anon said, he barely knows them and already has grandkids he is close with and who are constitutionally relevant.

[opera-ghosts]

D’ALTON, Helen [SHEA, Mary Ellen] (b South Terrace, Cork, c 1850; d 5 Curlew Street, Horsleydown, London 16 March 1893)

'One of the purest contraltos to which the sister isle ever gave birth' (The Standard, 1874).

Irish mezzo-soprano who found success as a ballad singer in the 1870s and 1880s.

Mary Ellen Shea was born in Cork, the daughter of John Shea, Esq., JP (b St John’s, Newfoundland 2 July 1803; d St Anne’s Hill, Blarney, Cork 9 October 1858), a merchant, magistrate and sometime mayor of Cork, and his wife Mary Agnes née Corbett (m 21 April 1836). Shea and his father-in-law, Dan Corbett ‘of South Mall, Cork), were leading lights in the organization of Cork’s National Exhibition of 1852, and Corbett was also known locally as a ‘jovial’ amateur actor and vocalist.

Mrs Shea ‘of Buckingham Place’ gave birth to a son, Henry John Francis on 14 June 1837, another on 24 May 1842, another on 18 July 1843, lost an Edward C (‘fourth son’) 5 October 1844 aged 2 1/2 … but doesn’t seem to have gone to the press with the birth of her ‘?only’ daughter.

Miss Shea studied singing with Mrs Charlotte [Sims] Reeves, and came out, for what seems to have been the first time, under the name of Mlle Hélène D’Alton (an improbable, but Irish high-society, surname), at an Ash Wednesday Concert at Drury Lane, 10 February 1869. She gave ‘Il segreto’, ‘O Rest in the Lord’ and joined the Doria sisters in the Athalie music. 

Later in the season (31 July), she sang at the Crystal Palace, alongside Christine Nilsson, Clarice Sinico, Vernon Rigby and Foli, and was favourably noticed as ‘a young lady with a very pleasing contralto voice who sang touchingly the devotional air ‘O Lord, Thou hast searched me out’ from The Woman of Samaria and ‘Gentle troubadour’. The Morning Post confirmed ‘[she] ‘sang her two airs most beautifully. She has a remarkably touching quality of voice and her style is polished and confident; her voice, a mezzo-soprano of unusual clearness, travelled to the extremity of the transept with brilliant effect’.

Mlle D’Alton was engaged to appear at George Wood’s Saturday Evening Concerts at Exeter Hall in the new year, alongside Reeves, Santley, Foli and Mlles Sinico and Monbelli (‘The Gipsies Home’, Barnett’s ‘Old Familiar Friend’), after which she accompanied Santley, Mlle Sinico and another pupil of Mrs Reeves, Annie Edmonds, to Ireland (‘the Santley concerts’) and on 17 February 1870 made her first professional appearance in her home town (‘The Gipsies' Home’, Levey’s ‘Baby Mine’ and ‘Come Home, My Sailor Boy’, Blumenthal’s ‘When we are parted’, ‘Sainted Mother’ with Miss Edmonds). The reviews paid homage to her late father, and Ireland confirmed: ‘This young lady has a voice of great richness, uncommon compass and fine free tone. She sings with judgement, proves a good education, and excited a genuine admiration. She is likely to be very successful.’ ‘She always sings with truth, has admirable restraint, never exaggerates, and is sure to please’.

Back in London, Miss Helen D’Alton was billed with another young Mrs-Reeves-trained vocalist, the Scottish Jane Allan Stephen, in Sims Reeves’s Benefit concert (18 March), and over the following seasons, the said Miss D’Alton would appear, on frequent occasions, on concert bills in which Reeves was starred, both in London and in the provinces.

In between, she appeared at the Crystal Palace (14 May 1870) with the stars of the Italian opera, at the Glasgow Saturday Evening Concerts (‘Scenes of youth’, ‘Rich are rare were the jewels’, ‘Looking Back’), and made a single Ash Wednesday appearance at the Boosey Ballad Concerts (22 February 1871, ‘The Blind Girl’s Dream’ with ‘genuine feeling and expression’, Hawes’s ‘I’ll speak of thee’ and ‘O’er shepherd’s pipe’ with Santley). She gave her ‘Blind Girl’s Dream’, alongside Reeves and Santley, at Leicester, and, on 29 April 1871, she sang the title-role, alongside Mme Lemmens-Sherrington, Reeves and Patey, in Roeckel’s cantata The Fair Rosamund at the Crystal Palace and, the following year, his The Sea Maidens ('Maiden Muriel'). At Mr Austin’s concert she sang ‘I dreamed I was in heaven’ from Naaman, and she ventured wholly into oratorio with a Messiah with the National Choral Society, the Rossini Stabat Mater at the Covent Garden proms, an Israel in Egypt with Reeves at the Sacred Harmonic Society and in Carter’s Evangeline at the Albert Hall.

The oratorio experience was evidently not wholly convincing. Over the years that followed, Miss D’Alton would appear, on occasion, in oratorio – from The Messiah (‘scarcely seemed equal to the contralto music’, Manchester, 'scarcely powerful enough for so large a hall' Birmingham) to The Light of the World and The Prodigal Son (Manchester, 7 February 1874), Judas Maccabeus at Bristol, Jephtha/Last Judgement at Cardiff  -- in the provinces, but her frequent London engagements were almost entirely in concert, where her evident speciality was modern ballad music. Pieces such as Mme Sainton-Dolby’s ‘He thinks I do not love him’, Sullivan’s ‘Golden Days’, The Distant Shore’, Looking back' and ‘Will He Come?’, Odoardo Barri’s ‘Mizpah’, ‘Love’s Golden Past’ and ‘The Shadow of the Cross’, Virginia Gabriel’s ‘A Shadow’, Gounod’s ‘Oh that we two were maying’, ‘Meeting Again’ by Cotsford Dick or Charles Salaman’s ‘Eva Tual’ and ‘Loved One’ were delivered in her ‘tuneful contralto voice and unobtrusive style’, her ‘excellent contralto voice and unaffected style’, to good effect. Very occasionally an operatic piece – ‘Ah! s’estinto’, 'Araby, dear Araby' or ‘Quando a te lieta’ – would appear alongside the new ballads, and the classic ones ('The Harp  that once through Tara's Halls, 'O, Erin my country', Samuel Lover’s ‘What will you do, love?’, 'John Anderson, my Jo', 'By the sad sea waves'), a little more frequently an item from oratorio (Hiller's 'Lord, whom my immortal soul'), but rarely did Miss D’Alton venture into the world of the dramatic. I spot her, in 1874, singing in a selection from The Bohemian Girl at the Albert Hall, in 1875, during a modest appearance at the Norwich Festival, as a late replacement, she sang in some pieces of a local operetta, The Science of Love, and in 1878 she took part in a concert performance of Il Trovatore at the Royal Aquarium.

Miss D’Alton, in fact, became quite a regular at the Royal Aquarium where, apart from ballads and the ephemeral operatic experience, she also sang several times in the Stabat Mater (alongside the fireworks and freak shows), and she became an equally familiar presence at the promenade concerts staged annually at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. She took part in these ‘proms’ as late as 1887. On several occasions, too, she appeared in the prestigious Boosey Ballad Concerts (‘My Love has gone a sailing’ by Molloy, Linley's ‘Primroses deck the bank's green side’, ‘The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington’), but without becoming a regular participant.

For a number of years, the 'clever and popular young vocalist' went on the road with Sims Reeves, in varying concert party combinations, alongside Gertrude Cave-Ashton, Foli, Agnes Larkcom et al – and again with Edith Wynne – but her name appeared, it seemed, most frequently on the ballad sheet-music which flowed from the various publishers’ lists: Cowen’s ‘The Better Land’, 'Love and Duty' and ‘A Song and a Rose’, Molloy’s ‘The Old Street Lamp’, ‘The Harbour Bar’, Ignace Gibsone’s ‘The Missing Ship’, Roeckel’s ‘Poppies in the Corn’ and 'A Midnight Song', Stephen Adams’s ‘In heart we both are young’, ‘The Children of the City’ and ‘True Hearts’, ‘I cannot forget’, Blumenthal’s ‘The Old, Old Story’ and ‘Lucy Gray’, Moulton’s ‘Beware’ and ‘I love my love’, Fanning’s ‘Something sweet to tell you’, Campana’s ‘Her Faithful Heart’, Milton Wellings’s ‘Young love that slumbers’, Owen Hope’s ‘In Happier Days’, Caroline Lowthian’s ‘Gates of the West’, Malcolm Watson's 'A Winter Story', as an adjunct to Antoinette Sterling on ‘The Lost Chord’ and to Mme Sainton-Dolby on a number of songs, and, latterly, on the songs of Isidore de Lara ('The Garden of Sleep', 'Once and For Ever'). As late as 1889, Miss D’Alton appeared on the bills of the Monday pops, with a new song by Maude Valerie White.

By the middle of the 1880s, however, she was appearing much less in public and, apart from the Covent Garden proms, largely in charity concerts and on fashionable society programmes. By the time, in 1889 (14 August), that she became the wife of Mr Fallon Percy Wightwick MD MRCS LRCP MB, a well-known medical man, she was appearing only a handful of times a season.

Helen D’Alton’ died just a few years after her marriage, and her obituary insisted that she was ‘a few years ago a highly popular contralto vocalist’. Which was more or less true. ‘Tuneful contralto voice and unobtrusive style’ had probably described her better.

It also insisted that she was thirty-eight years of age. Which was not true at all.She (vocalist, aged 20) and widowed mamma (52) can be seen lodging in Salisbury Street, Westminster in 1871 …

[fallingforfandoms]

Song tag

Thanks for tagging me @krejong !

rules: pick a song for each letter of your url and tag that many people.

(This ... is gonna be one hell of a long list, if I'm supposed to go with each different letter, even the ones that show up twice. That's probably not how you're meant to do it though? Anyway, sorry not sorry, because these are all some VERY good songs!)

F lames - BOY

A bendlied - Radio Doria (aus aktuellem Anlass, weil die ganze Münsterpremiere gestern Abend so toll war und Jan auch einfach... Jan war :') )

L ass die Musik an - Madsen

L et Your Love Flow - The Bellamy Brothers (ja, es klingt wie Jürgen Drews. Aber das hier ist das Original :D)

I ch liebe dich - Clowns & Helden

N othing Else - Angus & Julia Stone

G IB MIR GEFAHR - Casper feat. Felix Brummer

F lickers - London Grammar

O ne Last Time - LP

R ien dire - Christine and the Queens

F ire - Barns Courtney

A libi - Bradley Cooper

N ew Year's Day - Taylor Swift

D ecember, 1963 (Oh, What A Night) - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (sorry not sorry für die eventuell einsetzende Sherlockvermissung)

O hne Dich (schlaf ich heut Nacht' nicht ein) - Münchener Freiheit

M ama - Ina Müller (bischn platt fört tuhuus föhlen <3)

S acre coeur - Tina Dico

No-pressure tagging @enbyrry @theoniprince @iamnessaja @olgalenski @occhi-verdi-come-il-mare @all-my-worlds-a-stage @sherrylniria @dragodina @disappointingsalad @like-a-bond @carlomainzinger @caromitpunkt @cornchrunchie @mistofstars @mordsfesch and literally anyone else who feels like it because I'm all out of suggestions 😅

[harry-sussex]

Five years ago today, I was alone in London, staying at a tiny AirBnb that I shared with the owners (two middle-aged men). I woke up at about 4:45am and showered, packed a bag, got ready, and put on the clothes I’d picked out the night before. I had scheduled a cab for early morning, and he arrived at about 5:30am - took full advantage of the jet lag working in my favor. I met him outside on time - he brought me to an ATM quickly and then we embarked on the ~60min trip to Windsor, where he dropped me off near (but not at) the castle. I roamed about for about an hour and grabbed breakfast and a coffee from McDonald’s, as that was the only thing open at 6:45am on a Saturday.

It wasn’t your average Saturday, of course. I took my bag and a blanket and made my way over to the Long Walk, where I promptly took a seat in the damp morning grass, completely alone with nothing other than an official program and a book to keep me company. I had you guys, too, though there were far fewer of you around here back then.

I waited for several hours and made some friends along the way - a group of women from Seattle, a group of English women, and a reporter from South Africa. We all set up camp together, sharing snacks and iced coffee and champagne and Pimms while we let the hours pass by.

The crowds continued to build as we got closer and closer to wedding time. I’d secured a prime spot, close to the barricade and within viewing distance of the screens, but still able to see Windsor Castle. While we waited for the formal festivities to begin, we watched the guests - the Suits cast, the Middletons, Harry’s longtime friends - and then eventually the royals - Beatrice, Eugenie and Jack, Anne and Tim, Edward and Sophie, James and Louise, Zara and Mike, Peter and Autumn - find their seats. Then we saw the big ones - Kate (with many of Meghan’s friends) and the kids, Charles, and Camilla, Philip and HM.

Eventually, the time came, and (at the time), I’d never been so excited in my life. I just couldn’t believe it was finally happening - my Harry was marrying this beautiful, charming, smart, absolute force of a woman, and I couldn’t have been happier. I loved them, you see. I loved him, and I loved her.

I knew from November 27, 2017 that I was going to fly to London for the second time in my life to see this in person and, at last, I’d finally made it. My post from the first anniversary of their engagement, 11/27/2018:

When Meghan and Doria drove down the Long Walk, I literally flipped out - my picture of the moment is bad but even if you can’t see it in the photo, you could see her sparkling even through the windows as they sped (far too quickly) towards the castle:

We watched as William accompanied his little brother to the altar, and then waited for Meghan to emerge from the car. When she came out, there was a collective gasp - that veil was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, even through a screen.

We watched her walk herself halfway down the aisle, and then we watched Charles accompany her the rest of the way to his youngest. Harry looked elated - I’ve only seen him happier on the day Archie was born.

Before I knew it, the ceremony was over, the marriage had been blessed, and they were standing on the steps. They kissed and then made their way into the carriage to start the procession through Windsor.

I was unabashedly ecstatic by the time I could see the procession coming my way. The crowd was freaking out - cheering and bouncing and, of course, I was bawling. I did the entire time through the wedding too. You guys know I can’t stop myself from the happy tears.

I refused to watch the procession through my camera - I wanted to see it with my own two eyes. I just snapped photos and hoped I’d catch something to see later:

I screamed, cried, waved like my life depended on it, and basked in the fact that my Harry was married and happy and that I loved Meghan because he loved her and that I’d gotten to witness the whole thing with my own two eyes in the crowds of people who’d loved him as their own since the day he was born.

After the hysteria died down, I went and took a nap under a large tree, then roamed my way back to where I’d been dropped off so I could continue with my plans for the day. I ended up with one of the worst sunburns of my life because the weather was so perfect.

I’d never been so happy, though. Never. It was an experience I’ll cherish for the rest of my life and even now, after everything, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I still have all of my little souvenirs - a small crystal glass with their joint monogram, the program, and even a tiny stuffed ornament marking the birth of Prince Louis not even a month prior. I’d give anything for it to go back to the way it was back then, of course - but back then, I’d loved them so much back then that, at the time, it was the single best day of my life.

My hysteria was documented by my new South African friend, who was a reporter. She wrote an article on their three year anniversary that partially described my experience and the way I felt through the whole thing (and the many years before):

I wish we could go back to those days. I wish things were different. It didn’t have to be this way, but at the end of the day, this is the life they chose in lieu of the life they were living five years ago today. Every time I see something new and painful and sad I think back to this day, how happy I was and how much I loved them and, more importantly, how happy they were. I miss it every day. I’d do it all over again, even knowing today what I didn’t then. I’d make that solo, whirlwind trip all over again in a heartbeat.

To the Sussexes - I hope it was all worth it. I hope your new life - miles and miles and years and years away from the life you together embarked on five years ago today - is as good as you’d wanted it to be when you left. I hope you’re as happy today, and even happier, than you were on this day five years ago, you and those beautiful babies. Even though it breaks my heart, I hope you’re happy in your new life that could not possibly be any more different than the life you lived before.

I hope you’re happy. I hope it was all worth it.

Happy 5 years, Harry and Meghan.

[msclaritea]

Resurfaced snap shows Meghan Markle and Eddie Redmayne at Soho House Istanbul

"A photograph of Meghan and Eddie Redmayne at Soho House Istanbul has resurfaced online - years before they partied together at the club's Amsterdam launch this autumn.

The picture shows the smiling pair with London-based photographer Jason Bailey in Turkey in 2015, a year before the now Duchess of Sussex started dating Prince Harry.

Sharing the snap on Twitter, Jason wrote: 'Night in, watching movies and remember fun times with this crew ❤️ #EddieRedmayne @meghanmarkle #istsnbul

Meghan, 37, and Old Etonian Eddie, 36, were reunited this September, when they both attended the star-studded launch of the new Soho House in Istanbul.

"Prince Harry and Meghan Markle hung out with Eddie Redmayne at their Cotswolds home.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have several close friends in Hollywood, including the likes of George and Amal Clooney, James Corden and Tom Hardy. However, new book Finding Freedom reveals that their circle also extends to Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne and his wife Hannah Bagshawe.

According to co-authors and royal journalists Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the royal couple hosted many "family and friends" when they lived at their home on the Great Tew Estate near the Cotswold village of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

The couple moved to their countryside house shortly before their wedding in May 2018, and relaxed with a close group of people such as Eddie and Hannah, who had become part of their "wider circle".

They also welcomed the likes of Serena Williams and Jessica Mulroney as well as Meghan's mum Doria Ragland. The authors wrote: "Jessica visited a couple of times, including just before the wedding. The two spent the weekend letting their hair down, wearing face masks, drinking 'copious amounts of wine,' calling Jessica's husband, Ben, to say hi and giggling because they were both tipsy...."

Markus Anderson hanging out with Eddie Redmayne, who made him godfather to his children.

Designer Roksanda, with Markus Anderson and friends at Soho.

Roksanda design, Artemis Dress, left. Sophie Hunter in design, right.

Don't worry! I didn't forget Megain Monday. Don't blame me for the articles, Team Z. They were recently posted on Twitter by BRF fans.

[salemoleander]

top 5 books? (or book series)

[Frightened English major noises] most of these will be YA/ not particularly literary bc that's what I can think of rn

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - absolutely STUNNING novel about a traumatized Jesuit priest who was the sole survivor of visiting an alien planet. Trigger warnings for basically everything, but it's worth it & feels gentle in its depiction of suffering. We read this instead of Hamlet my senior year, and it was the right choice (I say as someone who was/is obsessed w/ Hamlet)

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy - What if a kid's/YA series just Kept Going and got darker and bloodier with its protagonist. Extremely witty, everyone in these books is blorbo material.

Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology by Leigh Bardugo - Speaking of blorbo material!! Incredibly written heist books with a sextet of main characters and some great worldbuilding. Compelling magic system

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World by Steven Berlin Johnson - Creative nonfiction that weaves together the story of the history of cities and the heroic actions of Dr. John Snow & Reverend Henry Whitehead in their attempt to stop the 1854 Soho cholera epidemic. Really really cool & informative

Dragon Slippers/ Dragon Spear/ Dragon Flight by Jessica Day George - Are these aimed at teens? Yes. Were their descriptions of embroidery and glass art so arresting I bought all 3 books and have maybe reread them more than anything else? Also yes. If you like dressmakers, dragons, stubborn-as-hell heroines that have interesting goals/ambitions/motives, this is for you. (One of the dragons collects dogs.)

[stevens-stuff]

Weekly Quiz - 3/5/24

The Weekly Quiz Click on the right answer and it will appear in GREEN. If your choice pops up in RED the answer is incorrect. Good luck! Question One Where is the Walker Art Gallery located? Liverpool Manchester Leeds Bradford Question Two From which city does the UK silver hallmark come from? Edinburgh Cardiff Belfast London Question Three Who is Doria Ragland’s famous daughter? Meghan,…

[nkonson]

Prince Harry doesn’t want Meghan Markle compared to his mother Princess Diana

Prince Harry doesn’t want Meghan Markle compared to his mother Princess Diana

Prince Harry doesn’t want Meghan Markle compared to his mother Princess Diana

Prince Harry doesn’t want Meghan Markle compared to his mother Princess Diana

Meghan Markle may have honoured her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, through her sartorial choices on a number of occasions, but Prince Harry does not want his wife to be compared to his late mother.

In January this year, the Duke of Sussex came out with his bombshell memoir, Spare, in which he recounted many incidents glimpsing into his royal life.

In one particular incident, talking about his budding relationship in 2016 with now-wife Meghan, Harry had clearly told Meghan not to pose for a particular photo.

The pair was on a private visit to India and had gone out for dinner with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland.

In his memoir, Harry described that Meghan had ‘just done a trip to India with World Vision, working on menstrual health management and education access for young girls’, and then they headed to a yoga retreat in Goa for her mother’s belated sixtieth birthday.

After they returned to London, the party of three discussed the Indian trip. “On the subject of India: we laughed about the advice I’d given Meg before she’d left,” Harry wrote. “’Do not take a photo in front of the Taj Mahal.’ She’d asked why and I’d said: ‘My mum.’”

He further described, “My mother had posed for a photo there, and it had become iconic, and I didn’t want anyone thinking Meg was trying to mimic my mother.”

However, Meghan had been ‘baffled’ as she had not heard of the image but honoured Harry’s wish any way.

Princess Diana had visited India in 1992 alongside then-Prince Charles. The late royal was photographed in front of the Taj Mahal during the royal visit. 

NEXT TO >>>

[the-sayuri-rin]

LONDON — Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, were involved in a “near catastrophic" car chase with paparazzi in the United States, a spokesperson for the prince said Wednesday.

“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.

[londranotizie24]

La bella stagione: cinema e sport italiani sbarcano in Uk nel docufilm proiettato da CinemaItaliaUk

Di Simone Platania @ItalyinLDN @ICCIUK @ItalyinUk @inigoinLND Una new entry nel catalogo di CinemaItaliaUk sta per arrivare il 20 maggio con La bella stagione: cinema e sport italiani sbarcano in Uk. La bella stagione: il docufilm dedicato alle prodezze della Sampdoria 1990-91 Cinema, sport e specialmente calcio sono argomenti seguitissimi tanto nel Bel Paese quanto nel resto del mondo. Quale modo migliore per celebrare questi tre elementi se non tramite un docufilm dedicato? E, se il documentario in questione racconta una delle più belle favole calcistiche degli anni '90, tanto meglio. Proprio per questo arriva "La bella stagione", il docufilm dedicato alle prodezze della Sampdoria vincitrice dello scudetto italiano nella stagione di Serie A 1990-91. Lo screening del film, atteso per il 20 maggio alla Fulham Road Picturehouse, è organizzato da CinemaItaliaUk in collaborazione con Il Circolo London. Un'occasione che non celebra solo l'incredibile stagione sportiva della Samp ma dedica il pensiero proprio a uno dei trascinatori della squadra genovese di quell'anno: Gianluca Vialli. Quest'ultimo, scomparso a inizio anno proprio a Londra, è da sempre un idolo e beniamino sia dei tifosi blucerchiati che dei fan inglesi, i quali non hanno scordato la sua esperienza londinese al Chelsea, squadra con la quale ha terminato la propria carriera calcistica. Il film diretto da Marco Ponti è tratto proprio dal libro La bella stagione, scritto da Gianluca Vialli e Roberto Mancini, altro leader e senatore dello spogliatoio della Doria di quegli anni. Nell'opera dei due ex calciatori viene raccontata la situazione all'inizio del campionato di Serie A 1990-91. La Sampdoria del Presidente Mantovani è pronta a puntare al massimo obiettivo. Vialli, Mancini e Vierchowood sono più che mai determinati a fare bene, anche a causa della delusione patita a Italia '90. Un patto tra giocatori porterà a uno dei campionati più sorprendenti di sempre. Oltre alla proiezione del film è attesa una sessione di Q&A ai quali gli ospiti potranno partecipare. I biglietti sono prenotabili qui.   ... Continua a leggere su www. Read the full article

[royalpain16]

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry‘s royal baby is almost here!

The Duchess of Sussex’s mom, Doria Ragland, has arrived in the U.K. from Los Angeles ahead of the birth of her first grandchild, Entertainment Tonight reports.

In a statement previously released by Kensington Palace in October, Doria, 62, shared her reaction to her daughter’s pregnancy announcement as the rest of the world learned Meghan, 37, and Harry, 34, are expecting their first child together.

“Ms. Ragland is very happy about this lovely news and she looks forward to welcoming her first grandchild,” the statement read.

Doria, a social worker and yoga instructor in L.A., has a close relationship with her daughter and was the only member of Meghan’s family to attend the royal wedding in May.

Doria — who had visited Meghan and Harry in the months leading up to their nuptials — was by her daughter’s side for Meghan’s first royal hosting event in September.

She joined Prince Harry in accompanying Meghan to Kensington Palace for a celebration marking the publication of Together: Our Community Cookbook, which the Duchess of Sussex helped create to benefit those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.

Doria met members of the Hubb Community Kitchen and beamed as Meghan spoke about how the women welcomed her. Speaking with guests, Doria said she was “head over heels” about her daughter’s accomplishment.

The royal family has also welcomed Doria. After Prince Charles walked Meghan down the aisle at her royal wedding, he escorted the bride’s mother down the steps of St. George’s Chapel following the ceremony.

And while there’s no doubt that Doria will be a hands-on grandmother to Meghan and Harry’s first child, she won’t be sharing a roof with the newest member of the royal family.

Despite reports that Meghan’s mother will be moving into the couple’s new home at Windsor Castle’s Frogmore Cottage, sources tell PEOPLE that Doria, who is based in Los Angeles, will not be a live-in grandmother.

Doria may have rooms set aside for her in the cottage, located close to the house where Harry and Meghan’s evening wedding partywas held and where their engagement photos were taken, but she’s not making a permanent move there.Meghan and Harry announced that they are keeping the plans around the arrival of their baby private, which means royal fans should not expect for Meghan to pose on the steps of a hospital like Kate Middleton did after the birth of each of her three children. The palace will, however, announce when the Duchess of Sussex is in labor.

[mydailyvintagephotos]

Congratulations 🎊

Archie Harrison

Mountbatten-Windsor

[mountbatten-windsor]

September 20, 2018. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive to an event, with her mother Doria Ragland, to mark the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London, England.

[gertsroyals]

The In-laws meet

Meghan Markle’s mum Doria had tea yesterday at Clarence House with Charles, Camilla, Harry & Meghan.