Daunt Books

Now I don't get much time to go shopping for books during the week. A quick nip to WHSmith during my lunch hour is never very satisfying and I tend to order a lot of stuff on-line from Amazon. But all that is about to change as I've just discovered London's legendary Daunt bookshop is open until the healthy time of 7.30pm Monday-Saturday.

Daunt Books is the oldest purpose built bookshop in Britain and is a brilliant place for bookworms to mix and mingle or share their latest finds. Rather uniquely, the books are arranged by geography rather than alphabetically or by genre - and I find this really helpful. Last time I went to pick up a Dostoevsky novel and walked out with a book on the Russian Royal family too.!

Daunt Books also host plenty of talks, accommodating an audience of 150, and tickets are generally£5 and include a glass of wine! What's not to love?

In Conversation with John Cale

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love the National Gallery, and particularly the late night events they run. This particularly late, but nonetheless facinating evening featured John Cale of the Velvet Underground as the guest speaker.

Now establishing himself as an artist, Cale will soon be representing Wales at this year’s Venice Biennale. But far from leaving music behind, he entered into a very interesting discussion about the connections that art and music share.

I was very excited to hear about his plans for the festival in Venice and his much-anticipated mixed-media installation.

It was a really enjoyable and eye-opening experience that to top it all off was completely free of charge!

For more information on upcoming Late Nights at The National check out the gallery's website or Museums at Night 2009 programme for more great goings on after work