Some people think fashion is a lot of frivolity and fairy tales. For Camilla Morton that's true: the author's continuing series of illustrated fashion fairy-tale memoirs tells whimsical stories around the careers of some of fashion's greatest figures, illustrated by the designers themselves.
Diane von Furstenberg is her next subject, but before Christian Lacroix and the Tale of Sleeping Beauty and Manolo Blahnik and the Tale of the Elves and the Shoemaker, she had made her name as a purveyor of wise and witty advice on the subject of high heels and all that surrounds them. How to Walk in High Heels and A Year in High Heels bring together tips on the art of living gracefully from the eclectic likes of Samuel Pepys, Kylie Minogue, Gisele Bündchen, Dita Von Teese and Stephen Jones.
Morton takes an equally whimsical approach to reading, tucking into everything from Shakespeare to JK Rowling to Thomas Hardy. "I've never worked out how to tune in the TV in my house, so I have books everywhere," she says. "My dad has kindly wired up the computer so I have to check three news articles before I can check my emails, but essentially I just live in a different century or a land of make-believe."
Here is Morton's list of favourite reads for the summer.
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
I had an amazing drama teacher at school, and my mum was also a drama teacher, so she would read Shakespeare when we were little, with such amazing voices that they were more my bedtime stories than children's stories. I'm a words person. I can't draw, I can't paint, but you can paint pictures with words, and his are so beautifully constructed. It's a bit like a symphony: you take out one note and it just doesn't quite work.
A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
This is absolutely my favourite Hardy. Often when you read a big, heavy classic, it takes about 12 chapters to get into it, and you think, "Are people just being really noble reading this?" Whereas in A Pair of Blue Eyes, the nearest Hardy came to doing an autobiography, by about the second paragraph, when he describes Esmerelda's eyes, you are totally sucked in. When you have that first feeling of love, you do feel so invincible, and I think that this really captures that.
The Ordinary Princess by MM Kaye
When I go travelling, I always have a copy of this. You have to try to get hold of the old Puffin edition, illustrated by her, which makes it even more charming. It's the story of how even if you're ordinary, you can still be a princess. It's one of those stories that when you're having a bit of a rubbish day, you read it and you're like: "Aah." It's a children's book but it transcends any age.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
I love the way that you never know the heroine's name: she's in the shadow of Mr and Mrs de Winter and there's this horrible murder. The first line: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again", is such an evocative phrase. It's really spooky and sinister and dark, but at the same time it's got hope and strength in it as well, because this girl is desperately trying to bring hope and light into Maxim's life.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
This book to me speaks of my time living in Paris. I think children's stories have to be written even better than adult stories, because in an adult world you can be more complex, but with children's stories you have to explain things in a very simple way. I used to read it travelling back and forth from St Pancras to Paris, and now when I go on the Eurostar, maybe two or three times a week, I always listen to the Stephen Fry audiobook. There's something comforting about knowing a story so well that you know exactly where you're going with it.
Matilda by Roald Dahl
This is a really nice story about how this little girl finds herself through books. Matilda is someone I see a little bit of myself in, because I like going down to the library and getting lost in books. Roald Dahl isn't condescending to children but he tells them things that are slightly beyond their years, so he's like, "Of course you know what this word means" and "Of course you've heard of Charles Dickens". As much as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the most well-known Roald Dahl, this is the one that I adored.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
What I like about Pride and Prejudice is how Austen reminds you about the art of letter-writing. You couldn't just send a text or an email or a sloppy little "C u l8r" - you had to sit down and write a letter. There are 21 letters of correspondence in this and the drama is played out through them. Nowadays, people are so preoccupied by their career and independence that sometimes, the art of falling in love is a little bit forgotten.
Camilla Morton's book Diane von Furstenberg and the Tale of the Empress's New Clothes (Harper Collins) will be released on November 6.
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Alaan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Parthi%20Duraisamy%20and%20Karun%20Kurien%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%247%20million%20raised%20in%20total%20%E2%80%94%20%242.5%20million%20in%20a%20seed%20round%20and%20%244.5%20million%20in%20a%20pre-series%20A%20round%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries
• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.
• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.
• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.
• For more information visit the library network's website.
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
CRICKET%20WORLD%20CUP%20LEAGUE%202
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
