Not featuring a museum in the traditional sense, with dinosaur bones or an empire’s worth of plundered artefacts, but rather an ad hoc collection of more pedestrian exhibits – Hogan’s novel is no less bristling with stories and history for that. It’s about a man who collects lost objects, prosaic little things found in parks and streets, and imagines the stories behind them while trying to reunite them with their owners. It’s beautiful and sad.
Orhan Pamuk in the real Museum of Innocence in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2020, inspired by his 2008 novel. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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Similar to Hogan’s collector, Pamuk’s lovelorn businessman, Kemal, builds himself a private museum of items that relate to just one person, his illicit love Fusun. As the novel plays out over almost a decade, the Turkish businessman finds consolation and motivation to pursue his star-crossed lover through his archive of diverse trinkets that carry memories of their snatched moments tog
A member of the public viewing Melanie by artist Grayson Perry in the roof void in York Art Gallery in 2017. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire. Inset: Grayson Perry A series of ‘lost pots’ by one of Britain’s best known artists will be the star attraction when York Art Gallery officially re-opens on May 28. The gallery’s opening show will be ‘Grayson Perry: The Pre Therapy Years’ - featuring some of the artist s earliest works. The touring exhibition, developed by Bath s Holburne Museum, is the first to celebrate Perry’s earliest forays into the art world and will re-introduce the explosive works he made between 1982 and 1994.
THE other night I listened with complete amazement to Ed Davey, the leader of the LIb Dems, telling the country ‘if you vote for the Lib Dems you are voting for a greener, fairer party . I am astounded that this is the message given out when our Lib Dem council has done nothing towards making York greener, in fact they have gone the opposite way and voted to build a multi-storey car park in the middle of a medieval city, thus adding to the pollution and congestion that already exists in York. They have approved building an eight-storey apartment block on Piccadilly, they approved a hideous bridge to cross over the River Foss behind York Castle Museum, not even giving any thought to the beauty of the area.
YORK Museums Trust has announced that it has been awarded £423,226 from the second round of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund. The funding will enable the trust to reopen the Yorkshire Museum in the summer for the first time since March last year, as well as helping the charity remain financially viable following losses of more than £3 million of income since the start of the pandemic. The trust, which looks after York Art Gallery, York Castle Museum and York St Mary’s as well as the Yorkshire Museum and Gardens, is one of thousands of cultural organisations across the country which has been awarded more than £300 million in the second round of support from the Government.
Things to do in York
If the weather’s good, climb up to the City’s walls. These are divided across four sections, and offer sweeping views of inside and outside the city. Alternatively, you can take to the water, and go on a river cruise tour along the Ouse - there are many riverboat tours available.
The Shambles, a winding network of medieval streets, are full of cafes, tearooms and boutiques to explore. Unmissable is the city’s staggeringly beautiful thirteenth-century cathedral York Minster - if you time your visit around Evensong each evening, you’ll have a truly magical experience. Kids will love the Jorvik Viking Centre, an immersive recreation of life in Dark Age, Dane-occupied York. If you fancy a more leftfield historical experience, then the Cold War Bunker on the outskirts of town is a perfectly preserved subterranean nuclear bunker that dates back to days of the ticking Doomsday Clock – unfortunately, though, this is temporarily closed, but make sure to check