‘The George Shaw exhibition is largely comprised of Shaw’s paintings of Tile Hill, the estate he grew up on that has obsessed him ever since he started painting. The drizzly visions of an empty, everyman England transcend their bleak settings, inviting viewers to project on to them their own childhood ennui. A rope dangling from a tree, a lock-up garage left open, a broken goalpost: each one suggests possible youthful adventures – or traumas. “There’s nothing like them in existence, either in writing or in painting. Certainly not as rich or complex in terms of chronicling a particular kind of place – the British council estate”‘ (curator of the exhibition, in a Guardian piece here). The Back That Used to Be the Front was painted in 2008.

‘Surprisingly, A Corner of a Foreign Field is the first major retrospective of Shaw’s work, and Bath’s Holburne Museum is the only European venue for the exhibition. It features 20 paintings and 50 drawings that span Shaw’s career from 1996 to the present day, including several new works never previously seen in the UK” (Museum Crush here). This is Scenes from the Passion: The Black Prince, 1999. Lent by Wilkinson Vintners, London.

Easter in Bath: and a not-to-be-missed exhibition at the Holburne (on until May 6th) of paintings by George Shaw; in one sense they are domestic, in another they are profoundly political, two aspects of life which are often seen as the antithesis of each other but in ‘our’ writers and in George Shaw’s work are closely entwined. This is Scenes from the Passion: The Fall, 1999. Private Collection.

These are the British Ladies Wimbledon Champions designed by sculptor Ian Rank Broadley. They are outside the Club House at Wimbledon: Kitty Godfree, Dorothy Round, Angela Mortimer, Ann Jones and Virginia Wade. Beautifully done: wish we could have more sculptures like this around London. Wishing everyone a wonderful Easter break: lots of sitting in the sun reading a good book while someone else, perhaps, cooks nourishing little meals…

The Women’s London book is full of interesting little details, for example this photograph of the broom cupboard plaque in the House of Commons.. It’s rather moving that it was put on there by Tony Benn and that his son Hilary is now being such a force for good in the Remain campaign. And his wife Caroline wrote some good books about women’s history. Emily Wilding Davison is one of the stars of the film Suffragette (so worth a re-watch). Tomorrow’s Post is the last before Easter, we are closed on Good Friday, open on Saturday (thanks Rose!), closed on Sunday and Monday and we re-open on Tuesday. That is the day the new Biannually starts to arrive and on Thursday the new book are officially published. Our mailing list has been swelled by a thousand readers of the New York Times. Hands across the Ocean indeed, we are so delighted to have them.

The A to Z was created by Phyllis Pearsall (1906-96) who ‘researched London’s streets by walking thousands of miles, and making copious notes. The early maps were hand drawn, and key components of that style survive today with wider streets, clearly lettered using a sans serif font… Most importantly, the maps concentrated on the roads and not landmarks, producing a clear visual impression.’ There is a biography of Phyllis and a musical.

Women’s London: a tour guide to great lives by Rachel Kolsky is a new book which we celebrate on the Post this week. First up a nicely done collage of plaques to some of the women in the book.