Category Archives: Odds & Ends
Luxembourg Wine
In Anglo-Viking-Flemish Norwich, a Londoner and a Roman invited a Venetian for dinner at their home. The Venetian had some Austrian, Spanish, and Moroccan blood, the Londoner originally came from a Polish-Jewish family, and the Roman was of Armenian-Welsh-Cornish descent. … Continue reading
Posted in Odds & Ends
Tagged Brexit, Europe, katherine gregor, languages, Luxembourg, musings, scribe doll, writing
6 Comments
Future of the UK or Dystopian Nightmare?
The UK borders have closed. There is no longer free travel in or out of the country and a tourist visa is granted only to travellers able to prove a bank account balance of 1 million pounds minimum. London has … Continue reading
Posted in Odds & Ends, Uncategorized
20 Comments
Books: Challenges, Traumas and Pure Pleasure
I remember a stormy night when I was about eleven. We were living in Nice. I don’t remember what prompted me. I stood on a chair to reach the top shelf of my mother’s bookcase where she kept – along with … Continue reading
Posted in Odds & Ends, Uncategorized
Tagged books, katherine gregor, musings, reading, scribe doll, writing
10 Comments
London Night Sounds
The rumbling of the occasional car, speeding past our house. A murky grey sound. Snippets of human voices. A woman’s giggle. A crimson sound. The arrhythmic clicking of stiletto heels on the pavement. A copper sound. The roar of the … Continue reading
Voice, Stone, Wood and Air as One
I love Early music. I love its level-headedness, its lack of mood swings. It’s everlasting YES. Part of the reason I listen mostly to Mediaeval, Renaissance and Baroque music throughout the day is because, besides its being soothing and immensely … Continue reading
Posted in Odds & Ends, Uncategorized
Tagged early music, Guillaume de Machaut, katherine gregor, Mediaeval music, musings, norwich cathedral, polyphony, scribe doll, writing
13 Comments
A Tree with a Name Beginning with S
“I need a new tree friend,” I say to S. “A tree like my oak Merlin, outside my window in Wimbledon.” My new friend S. is a children’s and young adult fiction writer. She doesn’t find anything odd or unusual … Continue reading
Posted in Odds & Ends, Uncategorized
Tagged cedar of lebanon, katherine gregor, norwich cathedral, scribe doll, trees, writing
14 Comments
Zebras at the Opera House
Last night, I eagerly tuned in to the BBC Radio 3 live broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera, New York, of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot. It’s one of my favourite operas. I didn’t listen to it till the very end, though, because … Continue reading
Borzoi
I couldn’t believe my eyes, so I dodged my way through the Saturday lunchtime crowds by the market, and strode towards him. Two women were stroking his cream head. When he saw me, he slid past them and lifted his … Continue reading
Posted in Odds & Ends
Tagged borzoi, katherine gregor, promenade des anglais, russian émigrés, scribe doll, soviet, writing
21 Comments
“So What Brought You to Norwich?”*
When I tell the truth, they don’t believe me. I was brought to Norwich by a sheet of paper, a pen, and a china mug. It was winter 2013, and I was at odds with my life. There appeared to be … Continue reading
Posted in Odds & Ends, Uncategorized
Tagged katherine gregor, norwich, scribe doll, travel, writing
22 Comments
– and that’s Jazz.
It’s 7.45 and all the tables are already occupied. The staff are carrying in more chairs. Drinks are sipped. The hubbub of chatter hovers over the room, an evocation of the cigarette smoke of yesteryear. The jam session is advertised … Continue reading
Scribe Doll 