Across the sands of time, Ethiopia has embodied fantasy and intrigue. The richly storied country has been a supporter of Christianity for the Crusaders in the Middle Ages, a symbol of resistance to European colonization in the late 19th century, and, most recently, a recipient of aid due to its extreme poverty. Ethiopian Highlands offers…
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The Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art in Nukus, Uzbekistan — also known simply as the Nukus Museum—holds one of the largest collections of Russian avant-garde art in the world, second only to The Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg. This collection would not exist without the titanic efforts of its founder, who collected these artworks…
Read MoreWilliam Morris, whose words these are, transformed the look of wealthy English homes. His hand-crafted luxury furnishings were everywhere. The i-mag of 1872 might well have featured him, as a great designer and businessman. But Morris was also a poet with strong views about the economy. He belongs to a long tradition. As an earlier…
Read MoreDuring a discussion marking the death of Margaret Thatcher in April 2012, the journalist and broadcaster Andrew Neil turned to Shirley Williams, the Liberal Democrat peer and former Labour Cabinet minister, and asked her why Thatcher had beaten her in the race to become Britain’s first female prime minister. It was a pertinent question because…
Read MoreReturning to work with a new resilience As we start to return to work outside of home, there is an air of optimism. We still have change to handle, but life feels full of more positive possibilities. We’ve had a year of learning to be resilient to change and uncertainty. Now we can begin to…
Read MoreBig tech companies’ apps and devices consume the world’s collective attention in pursuit of their profits, with insufficient attention to the harms they cause users and the good of society. I believe we can say that Society’s attention is neurologically hijacked by a tsunami of devices, ‘weapons of mass distraction’, that lock it in what…
Read MoreStep back ten years and leaders from all walks of life, from those in business to party political leaders, were in a very different place: they were in control of their organisations and their customers. They were the ones to set the agenda with customers and constituents following swiftly behind. Fast forward to today and…
Read MoreCollecting rare books might feel like something of an intimidating project – how does one decide which books are worth buying and which are to be passedover to wait for a better copy? In terms of modern literature, the number of books which are published in any given year that become collectable represent a tiny…
Read MoreWhere to Begin When I was first encouraged to write the book that would one day be Brick by Brick: Success in Business and Life, I was in my early 30’s and felt a bit embarrassed and uncomfortable with the idea. I was busy building my businesses, investing in property and focusing on the future,…
Read MoreSeveral years ago, a friend took me to an auction of old watches in Switzerland. He told me he was keen to buy one made by Breguet; I had no idea what he was talking about, but I went with him to the pre-sale exhibition, and what I saw opened my eyes to a branch…
Read MoreDuring a discussion marking the death of Margaret Thatcher in April 2012, the journalist and broadcaster Andrew Neil turned to Shirley Williams, the Liberal Democrat peer and former Labour Cabinet minister, and asked her why Thatcher had beaten her in the race to become Britain’s first female prime minister. It was a pertinent question because…
Read MoreDutch fund manager Pim van Vliet has recently published, together with investment specialist Jan de Koning, a new book on the merits of investing in so-called ‘low risk’ stocks (High Returns from Low Risk: A Remarkable Stock Market Paradox). Van Vliet, who manages 18 billion Euros in low-risk equities at Rotterdam based Robeco, claims that…
Read MoreBy Campbell Macpherson, author of The Change Catalyst: Secrets to Successful and Sustainable Business Change. Change has never been more prevalent or more relevant than it is today. Voters across the globe are voting for change, any change; seemingly at any cost. Entire industries have been disrupted and transformed by globalisation and a new breed…
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According to the Office of National Statistics, Londoners work 100 hours a year more than the rest of the country. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if we all liked our work. But when the psychologist Daniel Kahneman researched how happy we feel by asking hundreds of employees to capture their experience during each day,…
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There is no doubt that the quality of our decisions impacts practically every aspect of our lives. Professionally, it is arguably the factor that makes the greatest difference to the level of success that we will achieve, because it determines how well every other talent or capability we have can be applied. Our proficiency in…
Read MoreBy Alan Weiss, co-author of Lifestorming: Creating Meaning and Achievement in Your Career and Life. One of the greatest expenses for organizations is, of course, people. And one of the greatest people expenses is absenteeism. And, in my 30 years of consulting, I’ve found that one of the greatest causes of absenteeism is stress. And…
Read MoreWhat made you get into broadcast journalism? I’d been a newspaper journalist for about a decade and I’d started doing bits of telly on the side, commentating on politics mainly. The more I did the more fun I had, and when Channel 4 News came knocking it occurred to me I could combine what I…
Read MoreThere are typically two poles of conservative thought regarding civilisation, best characterised as deteminist (Spengler) and non-determinist (A J Toynbee), where do you reckon Burke sits on that spectrum? Historically there has been a tension here. On the one hand you have people who regard civilisation in the manner of Katherine Hepburn in The African…
Read MoreBetween 1947 and 2007 Eileen Ford created the largest and longest lasting model agency the world has ever seen, famed for its blonde and slinky beauties whose thighs would stretch for miles. If you booked a Ford model, you got Ferrari and Porsche glamour—with Rolls-Royce prestige and prices: Jerry Hall, Lauren Hutton, Christie Brinkley, Christie…
Read MoreIn late May 2014, I received a phone call from Jean Becker, my father’s longtime chief of staff. She got straight to the point. “Your dad wants to make a parachute jump on his ninetieth birthday. What do you think?” About eighteen months earlier, Jean had called to review the funeral arrangements for my father.…
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