My Cultural Highlights of 2018

I love looking back over the year and reviewing my cultural highlights.  Its a great way of remembering all the things I have seen or heard, and reflecting on what made them so inspiring.  It is also a great way of thinking about what I want to do more of or give more attention to next year.

Below is a selection of my cultural favourites from this year

Film – The Shape of Water

This was particularly tricky.  Mainly because I didn’t go to the cinema nearly enough this year.  As I look back at the films I did manage to see though, I keep coming back to The Shape of Water.  I was mesmerised at the time I watched it.  For its originality alone,  I can completely understand why it won so many awards.  I found it beautiful and surprising and really quite moving.

Theatre – Exit The King at The National Theatre

I’m a big fan of Rhys Ifans.  He was the star of A Christmas Carol, my favourite production last year.  In Exit The King, he played the part of a 400 year old king clinging onto life for all its worth.  His peformance was powerful and I was so moved by the play.   Entertaining, dramatic, energetic and deeply moving. Rhys Ifans was a force in both life and death.

Exhibition – Frida Kahlo Making Herself Up at The V&A

I love Frida Kahlo and was desperate to get to this exhibition from the moment it opened.  Predictably tickets were quickly sold out and I didn’t actually get there until a few days before it closed.  It was wonderful.  The display of Fridas beautiful dresses is something I won’t forget in a hurry.  Gorgeous colours, patterns and shapes.  The exhibition was a fabulous tribute to the vibrant, courageous woman she was.  Despite the size of the exhibition there was an intimacy to it, largely due to the collection of very personal exhibits from her home.

Gallery or Museum – Fashion and Textiles Museum

I visited The Fashion and Textiles Museum in Bermondsey for the first time this year.  I went to see the Orla Kiely – A Life in Pattern exhibition. I loved the exhibition but equally enjoyed this lovely exhibition space.   The museum does not have a permanent collection but changes its exhibitions regularly.  Its location is excellent too with lots of coffee and lunch options on the doorstep.  I really hope to get along to the current exhibition ‘Night and Day 1930’s Fashion and Photographs’ before it closes later in January.

Music Event – Ed Sheeran at Wembley

I unashamedly love Ed Sheeran and although this was by far the biggest concert I attended this year it was just brilliant.  Ed and his guitar were even better than I imagined he would be, owning the stage and happily carrying the audience along with him.

Literary Event – Chiswick Book Festival

I want to say the whole of the festival as me and my mum had such a good day there.  However, If I were to choose just one event of those we attended I would choose the conversation between Kate Morton and Joanna Trollope.  Two writers who I have enjoyed and admired for many years.  They both spoke candidly about the urge they have to write and how they find their inspiration.  Listening to Kate Morton read from her latest novel ‘A Clockmakers Daughter’ was just wonderful.  She brought it to life for me so much and I just had to buy it.

Next year, I do hope to do better with Film, and must get to the cinema more often.  This is one of my favourite things to do, so I can only put my poor attendance down to the very long, hot summer we had, when evenings under the stars were by far the preferred form of entertainment.  The first film on my must see list is ‘Mary Poppins Returns’, closely followed by Colette.

I look forward to sharing many more of my cultural exploits with you during 2018.

Happy New Year.