Muriel Zagha

Thanks, @therealgerrylynch.bsky.social

@murielzagha.bsky.social cohosts a fine podcast with @suzanneraine.bsky.social, Master of @selwyn1882.bsky.social, entitled @garlicandpearls.bsky.social

Great piece, and also worth listening to this @listentotimesradio.bsky.social follow up—@murielzagha.bsky.social explains how the Book of Common Prayer's beauty made her a Church of England churchgoer from a French secular background.
www.thetimes.com/radio/show/2... (Starts 3 hr 27 min 15 sec in).

Thank you very much, Graham!

Delighted as ever to have been a guest alongside Matthew Syed on Times Radio Breakfast with @thestigabell.bsky.social and Kate McCann to discuss morality and politics (re Peter Mandelson), and church-going and the importance of sacred spaces.

Peace be with you Mark, my Evangelist. So says fierce winged lion of Venice, as painted by Carpaccio. Today is his day.

A compromise we can all get behind surely

Inspired, actually.

Very pleased to see the new Engelsberg Ideas app launched! Can’t believe the journey since we went live with the site in June 2020.

Wonderful! I am immensely proud to be a contributor.

Brut: The French word that can mean raw, rough or Champagne This French word has many different meanings, from Champagne to salaries, via a well known media organisation.

Brut: The French word that can mean raw, rough or Champagne

The Special Relationship in a world of hard power The alliance between Britain and the United States worked best when the former had leverage of its own.

The alliance between Britain and the United States worked best when the former had leverage of its own.

The Special Relationship in a world of hard power | @chountisdefabbri.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

My review of Scott Anderson's superb book.

Stereolab :: Emperor Tomato Ketchup at 30

aquariumdrunkard.com/2026/03/09/s...

Thirty years old this month, Stereolab’s 1996 breakthrough record Emperor Tomato Ketchup was equal parts transitional and revolutionary.

Disaster of Delft: gunpowder store explodes in 1654, leveling nearly the entire city, & Egbert van der Poel records over and over the horror & shock of the survivors. Today is his explosive day.

Moses defending the daughters of Jethro. A wonderfully strange painting from Rosso Fiorentino's crazy 20s. Today is his day.

As I'm rather behind, I hope someone has already suggested you and Suzanne go to the Courtauld to see their handy sketch for Déjeuner sur l'herbe, no shipping required. The Bar of the Folies Bergere is also there, so one iconic French piece is ahead of your plans. Road trip-ette for the pod?

Merci!

A cracking episode about the British excellence of CAGOULES on the Garlic&Pearls podcast this week, and Suzanne is most persuasive. (NB: But this is the only acceptable type of rainwear in France 👇)

💥 NEW EPISODE OF GARLIC&PEARLS💥 @suzanneraine.bsky.social
recounts the story of the great British cover-up - yes, it’s CAGOULES! Ancient hooded spirits, anoraks, Royal Marines, textile manufacturing, fashion, practicality, and – in a surprising twist – anti-Republican conspiracies in 1930s France.

Many thanks from me and @suzanneraine.bsky.social Very encouraging! 🌷

A wonderful review of Garlic&Pearls from a listener with an impeccable taste in podcasts. A little more below 👇

Top of the Pops (2nd March 1978). Kate Bush performs Wuthering Heights. Currently sitting at number five in the hit parade, the following week it would knock ABBA off the top spot and remain there for a month.

a woman is asking another woman why are you so obsessed with me ? ALT: a woman is asking another woman why are you so obsessed with me ?

The French, collectively, after listening to this week’s ep of Garlic&Pearls about French baddies:

This week on the Garlic&Pearls podcast I unravel for @suzanneraine.bsky.social
why so many film villains happen to be French. From dissolute sophisticates to duplicitous manipulators and downright sadistic megalomaniacs, what do these colourful imaginary French figures tell us about Frenchness?

There is a light and it never goes out.

We at Garlic & Pearls love films: they tell us so much that is fascinating about Frenchness and Britishness. One of our listeners shares this interest and has been tracking the films mentioned on the podcast in a dedicated Letterboxd list! Thank you so much: we are thrilled!

What? French villains, you say? Surely not!

Gallic Gen Z are turning their backs on France’s tradition of ‘proper’ lunches with colleagues, good food, wine and conversation breaking up the working day says @thetimes.com - illustrating this with Manet’s scandalous Déjeuner sur l’herbe, recently discussed in an episode of Garlic&Pearls…

In praise of French brothels In the days of the Belle Époque and Jazz Age, a trip to Paris would have included, for the discerning tourist, a visit to the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and the Comédie Française, but also to Le Chabana...

spectator.com/article/in-p...