![]() ![]() The landscape that Peter Rabbit first introduced to us in 1902 is still today one of Beatrix Potter's most popular and well-loved worlds. ![]() One day, when the house is empty, the two naughty mice, Tom Thumb and his wife, Hunca Munca, make themselves at home, only to find that the delicious looking ham that they were planning to devour is made of plaster, and the fish is glued to the plate! Here, the delightful setting for this most hilarious tale is a doll's house. It was written during a particularly happy time in her life, as reflected in the story's cheerful and care-free tone. So begins 'The Tale of Two Bad Mice', a story written by Beatrix Potter and published in 1904. "Once upon a time, there was a very beautiful doll's-house." ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Magic Lessons is a “heartbreaking and heart-healing” ( BookPage) celebration of life and love and a showcase of Alice Hoffman’s masterful storytelling. And it’s here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her family. When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Nameless Arts.” Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. In this “ bewitching” ( The New York Times Book Review) novel that traces a centuries-old curse to its source, beloved author Alice Hoffman unveils the story of Maria Owens, accused of witchcraft in Salem, and matriarch of a line of the amazing Owens women and men featured in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic. ![]() ![]() ![]() Photograph: K & K Ulf Kruger OHG/Redferns ![]() Noel Redding, left, with Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell, in 1967. It never lasts long, it’s soon commoditised and exploited and imitated and it dissipates again until the next time it pops up elsewhere.” Writing Utopia Avenue, Mitchell became especially interested in Brian Eno’s concept of “scenius” – the idea that a grouping of artists in a particular place at a particular time “can have a genius, where marketing arrangements, business models and of course a pool of hungry young talent in tune with the zeitgeist, just the few times in history, it all comes together perfectly. This idea that you curate songs and make a musical journey out of them – imagine being in a year when that gets invented, and now there are lots of them, popping up like mushrooms when the perfect cultural combination is right, when the conditions are right.” Nothing comes from nowhere, just like the novel, but it’s a strong contender for the first of its kind. The album as an art form, rather than just as a convenient way to store singles and lesser tracks, kind of gets invented by Sgt Pepper’s. Sure, and? “Things were happening for the first time. Well, says Mitchell, the music was great. ![]() |