Above: The LV18 lightship moored on Orwell Quay outside the Cult Bar; the Merchant Seamen’s memorial is in the foreground. See article on page 6.

Early November, weekday lunchtime: whilst waiting in my car at the lights at the bottom of Argyle Street, I espied a young gent sticking full colour A2 posters advertising Circus Fantasia all over the area. The empty former funeral director’s office on the corner had four posters stuck to it with large quantities of ‘clear sticky tape’ (to avoid any law suits from the stationery industry). As I pulled away he was busy fly-posting the door between the Emeny shop and the public house. Over the next week it became clear that there was a trail of these brightly coloured adverts (litter-to-be) right across the town. A form of street art we could do without.


Each issue, your Editor ponders on what image to place on this page. Then along comes a blockbuster exhibition in The Wolsey Gallery at Christchurch Mansion with the starring role taken by Rodin’s The Kiss sculpture on loan from Tate Britain until 28 April 2019. Around eighty supporting pieces are on show, most from the Borough collections, many remarkable. Unmissable.
Robin Gaylard

Above: the opening event of the ‘Kiss & Tell’ exhibition on 23 November 2018 in the Wolsey Gallery.