Greece-Albania Border; EU Frontex forces deployment

"The European Union border protection agency Frontex says it will deploy forces along Greece's border with neighboring Albania" (Yahoo/AP).

Avgi report - Κομισιόν: Η φύλαξη των ελληνικών συνόρων, είναι αρμοδιότητα της Ελλάδας

‘Have I never told you that Corfu is Prospero’s island?’: marvels of the Levant and the Venetian colonial imagination, Anastasia Stouraiti

I'm sorry I won't be able to go to this interesting lecture.

Monday 9 November, 17.30-19.00

Council Room (K2.29), King’s Building, Strand Campus

‘Have I never told you that Corfu is Prospero’s island?’: marvels of the Levant and the Venetian colonial imagination

"Anastasia Stouraiti (Goldsmiths, University of London) will explore the relationship between wonder and empire building in early modern Venice. Drawing on a broad array of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century printed texts and images, this talk will examine how and under what circumstances ordinary Venetians, who never set foot on their city’s overseas territories or the Ottoman lands, consumed strange and fantastic stories about their empire that recast colonial expansion into rare experiences of wonder: monster births, meteorological and geological events, and natural curiosities. The paper will argue that approaching Venice’s maritime state as a marvel machine offers an original perspective on the links between the emotional, the cultural and the political in the history of early modern Mediterranean encounters".

This event is open to all and free to attend. Booking is not required.

Part of the Modern Greek Studies seminar series.

See also: Corfu - Prospero's Island?

Diasporas: A Global Profile, OECD 2015

Read online here - Connecting with Emigrants, A Global Profile of Diasporas, 2015

UK has 3.97 million migrants living in another OECD state

Times article, Richard Ford - Jobs and sunshine lure 4m Britons to settle abroad

"Britain has more of its people living overseas in other developed countries than any other European country. Nearly four million British-born people are living in another wealthy foreign state as thousands seek jobs or retire to warmer climates, according to an official report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development".

English Proficiency Index: Sweden No 1 in Europe

English Proficency Index: Sweden 

Full Report (pdf)

St Ives and British Modernism: The George and Ann Dannatt Collection; Dorset County Museum

Well worth seeing. I will go again.

St Ives and British Modernism: The George and Ann Dannatt Collection

3rd October 2015 – 2nd January 2016

"Marking the centenary of George Dannatt's birth in 1915, this exhibition will explore one of Dorset’s most significant collections assembled by George and Ann Dannatt. The collection includes a largely unseen and newly conserved group of paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints by key figures associated with the St Ives Group of Close Artists in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, including Terry Frost, Roger Hilton, Peter Lanyon, Ben Nicholson, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and John Tunnard. The collection is one of the most significant private collections of its type, not least because Dannatt was a friend of many of the artists, and was himself an abstract artist. A selection of his own works will be included in the display, as well as archival photographs of the Dannatts with their artist friends and rare artists' books and illustrated volumes. In addition to the St Ives Group, the collection includes works by artists associated with a poetic strain of Neo-Romanticism in Britain, including Paul Nash, David Jones, Prunella Clough and Keith Vaughan, as well as interesting prints by international artists such as Jean Arp and Eduardo Chillida".

With support from Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, Mansel-Pleydell Trust,The George Dannatt Trust and the Arts Council England.

British Art: David Jones and Peter Lanyon

James Russell writes

Peter Lanyon remains one of my favourite artists.