My Tiny Black Book of Secrets

Technology is moving so rapidly in quantum leaps... 

I cannot even catch my breath following it

We get blindfolded when so entangled with the trivial

Do we ever stop for a bit and wonder, what kind of illusion we are living in...? 

A new hybrid species is evolving among us...

Smoothly numbing us...

Making us dependable

Less and less indispensable 

A.I. is catching up with us 

Are we ready? Scary but true 

Siri ends up being my best friend. 

Every Flower Has Its Place

Embark on an enchanting journey of artistic innovation in Every Flower Has Its Place. Acclaimed floral artist Graham King takes you on a visual odyssey to intriguing and uncommon settings, where he brings to life his extraordinary floral arrangements. Captured in striking detail by professional photographer Stephen Barney, each composition showcases the rich textures and exquisite craftsmanship that are King’s signature style. Page after page, allow yourself to be inspired and captivated by the endless possibilities of floral design when blended with unconventional crafting techniques. This book isn’t merely a collection of images, it’s an invitation to explore your own creative landscape, guided by the breathtaking work of a master artist.

Before Abbey Road

   Before Abbey Road there was Teme Street is about a day in the life of The Beatles.

-        A band on the precipice of unprecedented global success

-        who had released their first LP the previous month

-        who had released their third hit single, From Me To You on the previous Thursday

-        who had met the Rolling Stones for the first time the previous evening and partied at their Chelsea flat

-        who would be playing the Royal Albert Hall in London the following Thursday

This band, at this time, travelled to the small market town of Tenbury Wells, deep in the Worcestershire countryside.

How did this extraordinary event come about?

How did it impact the town and how did it shape the future life of the author?

This lively account, part factual, part fiction will take you back to the birth of pop culture and forward to all that followed.

Art, Design, Craft, Beauty and All Those Things…

Responding to many recent calls for redress and restitution, Richardson summarises the historical and current situation and attributes its problematics to the fact that theorists and historians have taken the concept art as a generic that includes both design and craft – which are actually and validly distinguishable from art by application of the concept function/al ­– or else ignored the two entirely. Considering the concept function/al, he maintains, calls into question the view that the three may be sub-classes of the one class: whereas in a work of art, typically there is a resolution of the tension between form and content, in works of design and craft the resolution is between form and function. How this recognition can clarify the issue informs the entire book.

The book’s other major thesis is the realisation that aesthetic values are inherently human and that, therefore, they apply not only to art but to life in general. Far from being frivolous or a mere ‘emotion’, the aesthetic is a sense of equivalent psychic status to sight and hearing ­and, like them, is employed at almost every moment of our daily lives – which fact grounds art, design and craft deeply in human life. This is reflected in the universal use of the human form (including the exhibition of sexual characteristics) in art.

The eternal conflict between making art and making a living from making art is examined and contrasted to the rarely-recognised, but positive, role of design in planning and industry.

Richardson also critiques common theories of representation and composition, including ‘creativity’, Albertian perspective and scientific and geometric theories of beauty and composition; also the relevance of the camera and the computer in the field.

A Clarinet Almanac

More than 60 years’ experience in playing the clarinet has led to a very personal and idiosyncratic review of the repertoire. From the point of view of being both a player and a programmer the author has endeavoured to find works for unusual combinations involving the clarinet. This book includes a few orchestral solos and several vocal works (both chamber and operatic), but it is focussed on chamber music and includes gems from the repertoire for the standard wind quintet. The clarinet features as a solo instrument, in duos with a surprisingly large variety of instruments and in mixed trios, quartets and so on to larger ensembles. During the course of one year the reader will be exposed to 366 works, probably some unfamiliar, by 245 different composers. The author hopes it will whet the appetites of students, teachers and concert organizers alike.