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SMUGGLING DUCHAMP OUT OF SPAIN
Smuggling Duchamp out of Spain was never going to be easy under the stony gaze of the Guardia Civil and one can only assume that the 20th century’s most enigmatic artist w… Read More
THE INVISIBLE BUDDHA
The invisible Buddha can only be seen through the third eye of the imagination. The Buddha is in us and around us. The eyes of the Buddha see the past, the present, the future   Read More
TEACHING ENGLISH IN BARCELONA
When I was teaching English in Barcelona in 1984, people lowered their voice if the subject of General Franco came up. He had died almost a decade before in 1975, but it seemed as if he was… Read More
THE CLOUD OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
Americans grow up under the cloud of the American Dream, a way of life and a set of beliefs that lead to disappointment and dissatisfaction. It is commonly thought in the United States that… Read More
THE LAST CARAVAGGIO
The National Gallery in London had no idea when they titled their summer show ‘The Last Caravaggio’ that another painting by the Renaissance renegade had mysteriously appeared… Read More
FALSE MEMORIES AND DISCONNECTION
We would all like to go back and change the past with its medley of false memories and disconnection. But the past is not as fixed as we imagine. The future is in flux and the present is the… Read More
DALÍ AND DUCHAMP IN CADAQUÉS
Dalí and Duchamp in Cadaqués played chess at Bar Melitón in the barren years after World War Two and collaborated on a secret project that only came to light after Ducha… Read More
THE LAST STING OF THE DEAD JELLYFISH
A couple argue. He or she looks back as he or she leaves the room and says something sparkling with a four letter dash of venom. That is the last sting of the dead jellyfish. Two men fight… Read More
Bob Dylan and the Judas call are legend. What’s less well known is that this seminal moment in rock history had roots going back to the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. Dylan on stage with T… Read More
WAITING FOR SOMETHING
Everyone is waiting for something. Waiting for the kettle to boil, the rain to stop, the sun to come out. We are still waiting for something. Everyone is waiting to clear their closets, thei… Read More
CADAQUÉS AND THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO
Shrine to Saint Pius V On a day with fast winds and the sun low in the sky, 450 warships clashed in bloody combat in the Battle of Lepanto. It was 7 October 1571, the last major sea bat… Read More
THE TOBACCO SMUGGLERS OF CADAQUÉS
The tobacco smugglers of Cadaqués saved the village from poverty and abandonment after the wine louse phylloxera wiped out the vineyards. Penelope Cruz In the right circumstances, tob… Read More
WHY PEOPLE HATE THE DAILY MAIL
Lord Harmsworth with Adolf Hitler There are many reasons why people hate the Daily Mail – reflecting the fact that the Daily Mail is itself filled with hate.  The Mail hates every… Read More
THE SMELL OF DEAD DREAMS
We take flowers to the hospital when we visit the sick and dying without reflecting on the irony that cut flowers are already dead and their scent is to shield us from the smell of dead drea… Read More
When Bob Dylan in 1967 recorded I Shall Be Released in the basement of the Big Pink, a house rented by Rick Danko close to Woodstock, the title was elegiac and had a double meaning, naturall… Read More
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG
How do you measure the distance between right and wrong? Does it vary like the moon’s distance from earth? Or is it exact like Einstein’s E = mc2? Can you be a little bit wrong?… Read More
A PERSONAL LIBRARY
Umberto Eco (1932-2016) – the Italian philosopher and novelist, author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum – had a personal library of 50,000 books. He tho… Read More
HOW TO BE HAPPIER
We would all like to know how to be happier and the answer may be a lot more simple than we thought. Flor, Marsha, Iris, Pilin and Lali – happy to be together. I typed ‘how to be… Read More
YOUR NAME BECOMES WHO YOU ARE
In my research into the name Thurlow, it occurred to me that your name becomes who you are and has a far stronger influence on our lives than we imagine. One summer in Cadaqués. An… Read More
LADY GODIVA AND PEEPING TOM
Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom had an assumed or telepathic pact. When she rode naked through Coventry in the 11th century, had the hot bloodied young Tom not taken a peep, her theatrics may ha… Read More
KILLING A SWAN
Killing a swan was once considered an act of treason and still today you can end up with a large fine, even a prison sentence. I didn’t know that when I was 14 and didn’t know th… Read More
HOW TO STEAL AN ELECTION
With time running out for Rishi Sunak before the next general election, the Tories are frantically flipping through the playbook on how to steal an election. Happy Days Sunak’s first d… Read More
THE ARCTIC CONVOYS TO RUSSIA
Winston Churchill was piped aboard HMS Tyne and dad after hearing him nightly on the wireless got a glimpse of their wartime leader in person. It was September 1941, the days growing chilly… Read More
THE MYSTERY OF THE MONA LISA SMILE
The mystery of the Mona Lisa smile is that the mystery has finally been solved. Lisa del Giocondo is amused watching Leonardo da Vinci’s head pop out from behind the easel as he paint… Read More
DON’T LOOK BACK
Medusas in Cadaques – photo Clifford Thurlow If someone shouts, ‘don’t look’ or ‘don’t look back,’ the natural instinct is to turn and have a good… Read More
Message From A Cactus
The other night we received a message from a cactus and I laid in bed unable to sleep thinking about. The cactus stands in the narrow passage at the back of our house in Cadaqués in a… Read More
The First Movie Ever Made
Le Voyage dans la Lune The first movie ever made was Le Voyage Dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) by the French pioneer Georges Méliès in 1902. He had shot more than 100 short f… Read More
SALVADOR DALÍ AND RAQUEL WELCH
Salvador Dalí and Raquel Welch – A Kiss is Just a Kiss. Salvador Dalí and Raquel Welch had absolutely nothing in common. He admired beautiful women without wishing to own… Read More
SHE BELONGS TO ME
Offstage: Paul McCartney, Greg Allman and Bob Dylan. When Paul McCartney was asked in HMV’s ‘My Inspiration’ campaign to name the songwriter who had most inspired him, he c… Read More
THE INCURIOUS EYE
Clifford Thurlow at the Galería Patrick Domken van Schendel The incurious eye misses the obvious, the subtle, the subtext. The incurious eye is glazed in a cataract of ignor… Read More
WHAT IS CAPITALISM?
Will things go better with Rishi Sunak? Yes – but not for the poor. What is capitalism? The corner shop baker selling his bread is capitalism. The rock singer uploading music to Spotif… Read More
DALÍ AND PICASSO
In the land of small minds and minor talent, Dalí and Picasso were giants. They were men with visions wider than the horizon and the stamp they left on the 20th century remains… Read More
TORY WAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The Tory war on human rights will be raging across the tabloid press in the build up to the next general election. The Daily Mail and it’s partners in false news will be… Read More
BOB DYLAN AND BRIGITTE BARDOT
BB & Bobby. Artwork: Eduardo Skinner Bob Dylan and Brigitte Bardot were outriders, rule breakers, iconoclasts who became icons of the sixties revolution. When Dylan in 1965 played L… Read More
THE ANTI-TAX AVOIDANCE DIRECTIVE
Jacob Rees-Mogg – now on the telly with his ‘his eccentric anachronisms and far-right views.’ The Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive adopted by the European Union on 20 June 2016… Read More
JEREMY HUNT HAS BLOOD ON HIS HANDS
Jeremy Hunt – the man with the scalpel. Jeremy Hunt has blood on his hands that will never come off and a look of anguish in his eyes as his lifetime goal slips into the abys… Read More
WHY THE RICH ALWAYS WANT MORE
Nadhim Zahawi and Rishi Sunak. Credit: Kim Mogg There is a good reason why the rich always want more. Money provides status and connections. Big money makes you feel big, bigger than you are… Read More
LIVING IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
Hunt and Sunak with jackets off. People in the United States are living in a parallel universe. Half the population believes the last presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump throu… Read More
WE DON’T KNOW WHO WE ARE
“That way!” Rishi Sunak and Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen know where we are going. You. Me. Your neighbour. The postman. We don’t know who we are. You will never hear a Sco… Read More
JUST BE YOURSELF
People may tell you to just be yourself, but what they usually mean is ‘just be like me.’   Dylan plays Newport, 1965 It is human nature to believe we have made good choices… Read More
WHY WE MUST SUPPORT STRIKING NURSES
There is a very good reason why we must support striking nurses. They are striking in support of us all. They are striking against austerity, ‘stealth’ privatisation, inequality… Read More
MRS THATCHER’S DREAM
Was it Mrs Thatcher’s dream to see pretty English beaches caked in fetid lumps of human excrement and untreated chemical waste? When she said there was no such thing as society, did M… Read More
MICHELLE MONE IS A THIEF
Baroness Mone Michelle Mone is a thief. She should be in prison. She’s not. She’s either swanning through the House of Lords in ermine or disported on a luxury yacht in a bathing… Read More
SALVADOR DALI AND RELIGION
Dalí beside André Breton with the Surrealists. Salvador Dalí and religion never made a good fit. It is hardly surprising, then, that in 1935, aged thirty-one, Dalí… Read More
BOB DYLAN PLAYS LITTLE RICHARD
Bobby turned on the radio late one night in 1957 and the sound of Little Richard hammering out Tutti Frutti over over the airwaves changed his life. Tutti frutti, oh rootie / … Read More
WHAT IS SOCIAL MURDER?
Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata – it’s just lovely being rich. Social murder is a phrase applied to changes in government policy that lead to greater poverty and result in anxie… Read More
THE HIDDEN HILLS OF CADAQUES
The Casino, Cadaqués 1984. Late spring. Armed with a hand-drawn map, a bag of figs and some tangerines, we set out to climb what our friend Eloy Ferrer had called the hidden hills of… Read More
YOU’RE A LONG TIME DEAD
HMS Eskimo When dad took a second slice of cake or spent more time in the garden in the hot sun than mum thought wise, he would say: Don’t worry, Lily, you’re a long time dead. M… Read More

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