Hints and tips:
...A flick of a switch flips a coin over and realigns it (the reverses of hand-struck coins are never aligned with their obverses). For Thyssen-Bornemisza, coins are a catalyst for delving into history....
...The painting is “better than the ‘Mona Lisa’ ”, he says. The colours are more vibrant and “Mona Lisa is a boring woman.” Blocher was the seventh of 11 children. His father was a church minister....
...The same is true of Vermeer’s pensive girl, who has become iconic not because of her pearl earring but because of her pearlescent eyes, which flick back over her shoulder in a distracted glance....
...He flicks through Extinct Boids. “This is what I like, making up little fellahs, the Orange-Beaked Mwit, the Needless Smut. Ceri said, ‘We don’t want any needless smut in this book.’...
International Edition