Fancy Flâneuse!

Interesting article this morning on R4 Today programme about the Flâneuse.

I'm a follower of Phil Smith's work and his devotion to walking, and I'm looking forward to reading that new book on my wishlist: Flâneuse: The (Feminine) Art of Walking in Cities.

And I'm really looking forward to enjoying the leisure time when I can truly indulge this sport.

But, R4! A dog-end treatment from your tinkly-piano department. Oh dear. The soul, the melancholic, the wistful regret in those lingering notes! Your tinkly-piano department undermined the whole point of the piece. The idea of the Flâneuse to me is not so I can become the wistful fragrance of an invisible woman, hollowing out my mourning soul in quiet introspection to the slow melodies of your C notes.

Walking is to create a vibrant, imaginative and creative space: a practise which means I then find home and stitch paper to cloth to leather with a visceral urgency more resonant of a remix of the Dambusters thrashed out by a Wagner-Heavy Rock mash up. But wouldn't that challenge your stereotypes?

Thanks anyway for the article.