đź“– 7 Books in 16 languages đź“š including: How To Change The World A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech.
Save the date - don’t make me laugh
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Hello Could I be better at planning ahead? Yes. For instance: I have a solo show of my magnolia pics in London next week, and only now am I announcing it. “Save The Date!”, he says, with two days to go. Cue hollow laughter. But there we are.
I’ve been planning this for years. Each spring - more or less before anything else comes out - the magnolias go ping! with their great prehistoric lightbulbs and I wander around the streets of Hampstead making pictures of them. I think to myself: I should put on a show! But then comes the wind, and the rain. The magnolias lose their flowers. And my attention wanders to the next thing. ​ This year, I decided to Do Something About It. I went to Burgh House, in Hampstead. It’s a beautiful old Georgian House with a gallery at the back. It happens also to be the place where I had a party to celebrate my engagement, four and a half billion years ago, so it means a lot to me. The nice people at Burgh House said the gallery was available either in mid-Feb or late April. And for FOUR weeks I procrastinated. ​ Should I do the show TOO EARLY (before the magnolias flower) or TOO LATE? Last Wednesday (with six days to go) I said, Yes, please, I’ll take it next week. ​ One of the first things I did was invite the local magnolia keepers whose trees have given me so much pleasure. I wrote a note, stuck a photo of their own particular tree on the envelope, and went out with beloved schnauzer Peanut to hand-deliver them. More soon. ​
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John-Paul Flintoff
đź“– 7 Books in 16 languages đź“š including: How To Change The World A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech.
Hello Reader A building in Hampstead, on the corner of Heath Street and the High Street: You have two choices. If you take the road on the left, which slopes downhill, you’ll end up at Waterstones bookshop, assuming that you aren’t previously lured into (say) Gail’s Bakery or the Vencchi ice cream shop. If you don’t stop at any of those places and keep walking down the hill you’ll pass Belsize Park, Chalk Farm, Camden Town, Euston, the River Thames, Sussex, the English Channel, France, Africa...
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