A step towards Peace in the Middle East?
All credit to Donald Trump's peace plan for the Israel Gaza war. Hostages have been released and we move on to the second phase of the plan which involves dis-arming Hamas and putting in place an international governing force in Gaza.
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| US President Donald Trump addresses the Knesset, Oct. 13, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool via AP) |
Let there be no doubt, this is extremely hard, almost impossible. If Trump and his team pull this off, he really does deserve the Nobel Peace Prize next year.
And can he do the same with Russia?
Pete Firman - Magician Extraordinaire
I had the pleasure of spending an evening watching Pete Firman, magician and entertainer on his current UK tour. His magic was extraordinary alongside his comedy. Very entertaining!
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| Pete at The Bloomsbury Theatre, London |
Lee Miller at Tate Britain
The work of Lee Miller was largely unknown until her son, Anthony Penrose, discovered 60,000 negatives hidden in the attic of their family home in East Sussex. He has since dedicated his life to bringing Lee's work to the attention of the world. In addition to the books he has written about her, a superb film 'Lee' was released last year with Kate Winslet playing Miller. Following that is this significant exhibition of her photographs at Tate Britain.
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| Rene Magritte with Loulou by Lee Miller |
Lee was American and following her modeling career in New York, decided she wanted to become a photographer. She moved to Paris to meet Man Ray and moved in with him as muse and student. Together they developed new photographic techniques. She married Roland Penrose, 'the English Surrealist' and mixed with the famous Surrealists of the day. During the war, she became Vogue's war correspondent and took extraordinary photos on the front line including at concentration camps. These photos were too disturbing for Vogue to publish so remained unknown for decades.
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| 'Hotline to God' Strasbourg 1945 |
She never recovered mentally following her war experiences and relied on alcohol to cope with what we would now diagnose as PTSD. But she clearly knew what was wrong with her: “I never got the scent of Dachau out of my nostrils.”
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| Lee in Hitler's bath shortly after he fled. Taken by David Sherman with mud from Dachau on the carpet. |
Her beautiful photos fall into three categories; to start with the experimental photographic and modelling pictures; then the mostly poignant and sometimes disturbing war pictures; and then later and throughout her career, the sometimes remarkable pictures of friends and famous people.
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| Lee Miller's Rolleiflex camera (no zoom lens) |
This Month's Quotes
Rest In Peace, Diane Keaton
"You look so good tonight I can barely keep my eye on the meter."
Woody Allen's character in Manhattan, speaking to Diane Keaton's character in a New York taxi.
Party Conference Quotes
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years"
Abraham Lincoln
Used by Wes Streeting (Health Minister) in his speech at the Labour Party Conference.
‘Never wrestle with a pig; you both get dirty and the pig likes it.’
Kemi Badenoch only mentioned Farage once at her party conference and quoted George Bernard Shaw:
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