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Nu Bleu : Souvenir de Biskra, Henri Matisse, 1907   Pierre and Ferdie were having a long and indulgent boys’ holiday, a pair of blasé boulevardiers escaping their tedious Paris stomping ground. In rather less restrictive Italy, they stumbled on a notorious friend: André had just returned from newly colonised Algeria. It was here, he told … Continued

  Well, we think we have Wegovy as the manufacturer Novo Nordisk announced the release of this semaglutide product to the UK this morning, 4 September. As you probably know from the press, doctors have been forbidden to prescribe the previous semaglutide products, Ozempic and Rybelsus, for weight loss, but are able to do so … Continued

  Auguste Rodin whimsically dismissed his latest effort with a casual Gallic shrug as “a sculpted knick-knack following the usual formula”. In 1889, when the public had first set eyes on the larger than life marble of the ill-fated Paola and Francesca of Dante’s Inferno, there was a critical furore – opinions raging from “totally … Continued

  I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine, Since for me, you were born too late, And I for you was born too soon. God forgives him who has estranged Me from you for the whole year. I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine. Well might I have suspected … Continued

Teresa Mary O’Shea, our very own “Two Ton Tessie from Tennessee”, was born in Cardiff to the son of Irish emigrants, a gasworks labourer, and his Lancastrian wife, Nellie. In 1919, at the age of six, she appeared on stage as “The Wonder of Wales”, and, at the age of eight, won a talent competition, … Continued

  As my granny would say, “I have a cold in the nose, dear”. She meant, of course, that she had a runny nose, coryza in medical Latin – in other words, she was discharging clear mucus from the nares, arising from acutely inflamed mucosal epithelium of the respiratory tract! The respiratory tract is the … Continued

A CHRISTMASSY SORT OF STORY ABOUT ICE CREAM   Le Bon Genre No4, 1801   Nobody sensible in Europe had given a tinker’s cuss about any sort of use for ice. In the English winterland, cold killed. It was difficult for most to eat enough to generate adequate body heat. Children were fed beer to boost … Continued

Une marmite Deeply embedded in our culture, but mostly half-forgotten, Marmite has recently become a press phenomenon: open any paper and there is a mention of its unique properties. Love it or hate it; it will have been your parents’ fault most likely, and their parents and their parents’ parents, way back to 1902 when … Continued

  This is not Cinderella’s slipper lost on her run down the steps from the prince’s palace at midnight. This is Marie Antoinette’s slipper lost on her stumble up the steps to the guillotine at midday. On 16 October 1793, it was bought on the spot by Monsieur le Comte de Guernon-Ranville, and was given … Continued

WILL YOU BE ALLOWED ACCESS TO THE COVID CURES? “Catching COVID-19 was a blessing from God” President Donald Trump   The newly accessible COVID-19 treatments are – * RONAPREVE, a combination of the monoclonal antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab, is designed to attach to the protein spikes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus preventing the virus particles from … Continued