The film-maker Ridley Scott turned 86 just last week but he’s still producing epics. The man who directed Hannibal and Thelma and Louise among others has now brought Napoleon to the big screen.
Back in my London days, when I was based in Broadcasting House just up from Oxford Circus, I’d often take a lunchtime stroll through the smart grid of streets behind the West End’s temples of commerce.
Believe it or not, there’s a place that connects the Republic of Ireland’s most recent football manager and one of the most prestigious concert venues in the world the medieval capital of Scotland, the city of Dunfermline.
Leafing through my dictionary of music the other day, a thought struck me. Between Antonio Lolli (18th century Italian violinist and composer) and I Lombardi (the first Verdi opera to make it to America) there should surely be an entry for “lollipop”.
The Auvergne in southern France counts as one of the country’s most rural regions. A couple of hours to the west of the city of Lyon you’re in among mountains and dormant volcanoes and tracts of hilly agricultural land that border the rivers, notably the Loire and the Dordogne.