Clare Boucher

Cat lady adjusting to life with a dog. Books do furnish a room. My dog tweets at @OskarSchnauzer.

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

Thread of the most beautiful train stations on Earth 🧵

1. Antwerp, Belgium

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Gustav Mahler b otd 1860. Music of such breathtaking beauty...
"It is a funny thing, but when I am making music, all the answers I seek for in life seem to be there, in the music. Or rather, I should say, when I am making music, there are no questions and no need for answers."

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

This is what American cities looked like a century ago (and what happened to them)... 🧵

1. Saratoga Springs, New York (1915)

[Clare Boucher @boucher_clare]

It’s Lottie’s first general election. She’s very excited #dogsatpollingstations

[Clare Boucher @boucher_clare]

A worthy winner.

[The Orwell Prize @TheOrwellPrize]

Announcing the winner of The Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2024 - @matthewblongo for his book The Picnic [@TheBodleyHead]. Congratulations, Matthew!

With thanks to our judges @peterfrankopan, @sundersays, @christinalamb, @lola_seaton and @Silva, and prize sponsors @po_qu.

[Hay Festival @hayfestival]

“Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.”

– James Joyce in Ulysses. #Bloomsday

[Clare Boucher @boucher_clare]

@DevonPoliceDogs @_GS_Albert Well done PD Albert.

[Elena de la Quintaine @EdelaQuintaine]

Christopher Eric Hitchens born 13/4/49 Portsmouth.
It’s easier just to quote him:

“I learned that very often the most intolerant & narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance & open-mindedness.”

[Ros Taylor @rosamundmtaylor]

It is a small sadness that all the people I knew who loved cricket are dead, and no one has replaced them - indeed liking cricket, as a woman, is seen as wilfully eccentric https://t.co/uzCq1yhSzt

[Michael Berkeley @MichaelBerkele2]

The St John's Voices choir must be saved https://t.co/alLsHUFFbL

[In Quires and Places Where They Meme @QuireMemes]

[not a meme]

Choristers grow up with a love of music, a love of singing. Since the 90s this privilege has increasingly been enjoyed by all, regardless of gender.

When the boys grow up, they can become basses, tenors - even countertenors for the really brave. When the girls grow up, they have limited options - to become altos, if their voice is so inclined - largely because the selfsame system in which they themselves became passionate about choral music employs the children they once were. It is something with frustratingly limited solutions.

St John's Voices, however, is - soon to be was - one of those solutions. A mixed voice choir enabling all people to continue to love the choral music they fell for.

And it is also a choir for all those who realised too late in life that they could have become choristers and felt they had missed that opportunity completely. With SJV, that opportunity was there. Not just the traditional cathedral/chapel choir setup of trebles and adults, but mixed voice adults enabling sopranos to flourish.

The choral community saved the BBC Singers. Can we save SJV?

[Lissa Evans @LissaKEvans]

This beautifully-structured obituary, celebrating a remarkable and interesting woman, takes an unexpected twist two-thirds of the way through, which makes you re-evaluate what you've read, and appreciate its subject even more... https://t.co/500cdstkSO

[Angela Hewitt @HewittJSB]

My friends’ dog in Helsinki, Sani, reacts to the opening of Brahms’ 1st Piano Concerto that I perform in London on March 9th with ⁦@Fideliocaf⁩ Orchestra. Wait for it, about 30 seconds in....!!!

[Sir William Browder KCMG @Billbrowder]

Navalny was fine yesterday. We should expect a full Magnitsky style cover-up from the Russian government in short order. I can almost predict the language they will use: “natural causes”, “no sign of violence” “unexpected death” etc

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

This is the film Navalny made that pushed Putin from seeing him as an irritant to someone who had to be liquidated. Do watch if you haven’t already. And watch again if you have https://t.co/XAtrLKfGJt

[Donald Tusk @donaldtusk]

Alexey, we will never forget you. And we will never forgive them.

[Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing]

Navalny left a video in case of his death. Here are #navalny’s powerful parting words for the world for when he dies.

[Clare Boucher @boucher_clare]

Books read in 2024. No. 12: The Picnic. The dramatic events of 1989 and their aftermath, with reflections on the nature of freedom. Recommended.

[Clare Boucher @boucher_clare]

Books read in 2024. No. 1: The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng. Worth the wait. I love the prose style and descriptions of Penang. Truth, lies, silence and story-telling.

[Clare Boucher @boucher_clare]

Books read in 2024. No. 11: The Dutch House. Enjoyed this as much second time round.