Syria and George III

On Thursday I gave a talk to the Military History Group of York U3A. The subject was the invasion of Syria in 1941 by British, Commonwealth and Free French Forces. Syria and Lebanon were held by Vichy France and the fighting lasted about six weeks.

The talk went reasonably well but I had to skip about 20 minutes as the Group was going to a local restaurant for Christmas lunch so we had to finish early. We had a nice lunch, much better than the last time I went to this particular restaurant, and good conversations but I feel a bit cheated in losing the 20 minutes. Still....I have to put this behind me and look forward to my next talk; in May 2019 I am delivering a talk to the MHG in Pocklington. I have been asked to give my talk on the Fall of the Belgian fort at Eben Emael in 1940.

Something else to look forward to, I have signed up for a course titled "The Dreyfus Affair" at the University of York's Centre for Lifelong Learning. Eight two hour sessions on Thursday afternoon, starting in late January. Also, the Centre has posted a flyer for a course shared with Cityscreen Cinema, "A Brief Introduction to Japanese Cinema"

Tuesday afternoon, B and I went to Cityscreen Cinema for a repeated showing of the National Theatre's production of "The Madness of George III" by Alan Bennett, with Mark Gatiss in the lead role. Wonderful, just wonderful.

Finally I want to share this painting by Victor Poirson of a French Zouave., dated 1888, simply because I think it is a very good portrait.

About ten years I got into a little dispute in the shop Tradition of London about the racial mix of the Zouaves, he insisted they were local Algerians, I thought they were local Europeans and christians. A no-score draw.

Tate Britain

On Sunday, we had tickets to the Edward Burne-Jones  exhibition at Tate Britain.

Burne-Jones was a painter and designer working during the second half of the 19th century and he is linked to the Pre-Raphaelite group of artists.

When we got to the gallery we had quite a shock. The gallery had put out its winter decorations on the front of the building. Here are my photos.

Contemporary art can be challenging but two giant slugs as art is not to my taste. Give me Burne-Jones any day.