Memoirs of a Geisha is the wonderfully written epic by Arthur Golden. It tells the story of Chiyo who is sold into slavery at nine years old to an okiya in the geisha district Gion, of Kyoto. Here, after battling through much diversity, she becomes the geisha Sayuri who is one of the most successful Read More… »
Author Archive
» Inflatable Christmas Decorations – Christmas Yard Decorations
Inflatable Christmas yard decorations are a great way to brighten up your house at christmas time. They are great to look at and bring a real festive spirit to everyone around. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes and characters. There are standard inflatables like Santa or snowmen but you can also get Disney Read More… »
» Book Review: Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min is the story of the last Empress of China. Orchid competed to be a wife or concubine of the Emperor, as a way to provide for her family and as an alternative to marrying her retarded cousin Bottle. When she enters the Forbidden City she enters a world of seduction, Read More… »
» Book Reviews: List of Book Reviews
I love reading and writing so I thought a good way to combine the two would be two write a book review for every book I read. The list isn’t very big so far but I want this to be a long term project so I will keep working away. I also want people to Read More… »
» Book Review: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is the truly original and remarkable story of a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean containing a zebra, hyena, orang-utan, Bengali tiger and a sixteen year old boy. Life of Pi was the Booker Prize winner in 2002 and you can certainly see why. Read more about Life Read More… »
» Impressionist Artists: 5 Interesting Facts about 5 Impressionist Artists
Learn some interesting things about the Impressionist Artists; Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Vincent Van Gogh without getting to bogged down in technical artistic language. This focuses more on their lives than analysing their paintings, although I give plenty of my own opinions and showing several of their most famous Read More… »
» Impressionist Artists: Pierre Auguste Renoir – 5 Interesting Facts
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born on the 25th February 1841 in Limoges in South-West France to a working class family. He painted with Monet amongst others in the Impressionist style for years but then one day began to fear that he had forgotten how to properly paint, so he started focusing more on portraits.
» Impressionist Artists: Edgar Degas – 5 Interesting Facts
Edgar Degas was born on the 19th July 1934. He lived longer than most of the other Impressionist artists did, dying in 1917 at the age of 83, but his eyesight began to fail long before that. Degas is particularly well known for his paintings of ballet dancers and racecourses but in his later years Read More… »
» Impressionist Artists – 5 Interesting Facts About Vincent Van Gogh
Learn something new about the life of Vincent Van Gogh. For example, what’s the real story behind him cutting off his ear? Which painting did he sell during his lifetime? Why did so many of his paintings strongly favour a yellow pallette? Who was he closest to? and where do we find out so much Read More… »
» Impressionist Artists – 5 Interesting Facts about Edouard Manet
Edouard Manet is arguably the first of the Impressionist artists. Over his lifetime Manet’s art varied from being viewed as highly controversial (at the time) to being widely accepted and glorified by The Parisian Salon. He frequently chaired meetings and debates between other Impressionist painters (like Monet, Renoir and Degas) in a French cafe although Read More… »