Centre for Romanian Studies

Centre for Romanian Studies header image 1

Entries Tagged as 'cambridge'

People I met: Jim EDE – Cambridge Art Aficionado and Collector

April 18th, 2017 · Comments Off on People I met: Jim EDE – Cambridge Art Aficionado and Collector · Art Collections, Art Exhibitions, Education, Famous People, OPINION, PEOPLE

It was a window open to a completely new world of peace, tranquillity and timelessness, all achieved through the marriage of beautiful things, put together with the greatest sensitivity in a living space, which was a Home. By going there we learned a new way of life, a new way of love and, in the process, our spirit became richer.

[Read more →]

Tags:······

PEOPLE I MET – Nathalie DUMITRESCO & Alexandre ISTRATI

March 24th, 2017 · Comments Off on PEOPLE I MET – Nathalie DUMITRESCO & Alexandre ISTRATI · Art Collections, Art Exhibitions, Diary, Diaspora, Famous People, PEOPLE, Uncategorized

Looking back at the dinner in Brancusi’s old atelier, the memories are like a replay of a magic dream. In the summer evening the narrow lane of Impasse Ronsin, now completely vanished, was deserted. As I rang the bell, I remember I was not a little surprised, that before I was let in, Istrati looked up and down the lane, I presume to check if I may have been shadowed by some unwanted troll… For the uninformed reader one should point out that Paris of the ‘60s to late 1980s was replete with cloak and dagger stories, which would have made Agatha Christies’ stories a child’s play: indeed, one could not be too careful.

[Read more →]

Tags:············

PEOPLE I MET – Haroun TAZIEFF (1914-1988)

March 23rd, 2017 · 1 Comment · Diary, Diaspora, Famous People, PEOPLE, Poetry, Science, Short Stories & Cameos

Madame Tazieff-mère was, as one would have expected, a formidable lady, in every respect, and, for that matter, larger than life… At the age of 70 she just returned from riding in the forest nearby. Beside her sporting pursuits, Madame Tazieff was a dedicated artiste painter, in strong chromatic touches and her canvasses decorated the walls of the entire house. In true Russian fashion, she made sure that she remained the focus of attention.

[Read more →]

Tags:···················

David OLDROYD – Book Review: Continental Drift, Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures

February 20th, 2017 · Comments Off on David OLDROYD – Book Review: Continental Drift, Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures · Books, Diary, Education, Famous People, History, PEOPLE, Reviews, Science

Constantin Roman a Romanian patriot and is presently a professor honoris causa in Bucharest, while residing with his family in salubrious Glyndebourne. Roman must, by his account, surely be one of the world’s most upwardly mobile earth scientists. Starting in England with only £5 in his pocket, by ability, persistence, and charm, and using Newcastle as a stepping‐stone, he became acquainted with the right people and obtained a scholarship to Peterhouse, Cambridge, to do a Ph.D. on the tectonics of the Caucasus and across into Central Asia.

[Read more →]

Tags:····················

Constantin ROMAN, Londra – Sfidarea Idiocratiei sau Breviarul unui Neconformist

February 18th, 2017 · Comments Off on Constantin ROMAN, Londra – Sfidarea Idiocratiei sau Breviarul unui Neconformist · Books, Diary, Diaspora, Education, Famous People, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Science

Exaltat de aceste amintiri vii legate de “experienta” mea canadiana, m-am indreptat intr-o stare de euforie exaltata de adrenalina, spre sectia de vize a Marelui Comisariat Canadian (the Canadian High Commissioner). Le-am explicat ca aveam nevoie de o viza pentru un doctorat in Geofizica la Universitatea din Toronto. Cu aceste spuse le-am prezentat scrisoarea profesorului Tuzo Wilson, care-mi oferea un loc de doctorand.

[Read more →]

Tags:················

Moving Here – A Continental’s Drift

February 9th, 2017 · Comments Off on Moving Here – A Continental’s Drift · Books, Diary, Diaspora, Famous People, History, International Media, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews, Short Stories & Cameos

My greatest trouble in England arose from my refusal to give up my Romanian nationality. In retrospect this may seem bizarre, especially that I was menaced on a number of fronts: by Securitate operatives masquerading as diplomats, keen to end my flouting of socialist order and drag me back to Romania; by a prospective mother-in-law who refused to allow her daughter to marry me, unless I accepted British citizenship… and by officials of the British Home Office, who assumed that my desire to retain what I saw as my unalienable right of birth, my nationality, might stem from communist loyalties.

[Read more →]

Tags:··························

POETRY IN TRANSLATION (407), Anonymous, ENGLAND: “Epitaf pe o lespede de mormânt”

December 30th, 2016 · Comments Off on POETRY IN TRANSLATION (407), Anonymous, ENGLAND: “Epitaf pe o lespede de mormânt” · Diaspora, Famous People, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Educated at the University of Cambridge, as a Scholar at Peterhouse. For a number of years Constantin ROMAN lived in France, Norway, Holland and Indonesia and traveled extensively, as guest speaker to Academia and Industry. He published articles in scientific journals (“Nature”, “New Scientist”, etc.), newspapers and magazines (“The Times”, “Cambridge Review”, “Encounter”, “Revista Monumentelor Istorice”, “Manuscriptum”, “Magazin Istoric”) on a variety of subjects relating to History of Art, Architecture, Conservation, Poetry and Earth Sciences (Seismology and Petroleum Geology).

[Read more →]

Tags:······················

POETRY IN TRANSLATION (155): Marin SORESCU (1936-1996), ROMANIA – “Passport”

July 9th, 2016 · 1 Comment · Books, Diaspora, Education, Famous People, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Reviews, Translations

This passport
Is written in my bones
On my skull, femur, phalanges and spine
All arranged in a way
To make clear
My right to be man.

[Read more →]

Tags:··························

“Continental Drift: Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures” – Review by Prof. Thomas G. Gallagher

May 3rd, 2016 · Comments Off on “Continental Drift: Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures” – Review by Prof. Thomas G. Gallagher · Books, Diary, Diaspora, Education, Famous People, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Science

Constantin Roman writes with candour, wit, and humility. His remarkable life story unfolds with effortless simplicity thanks to his ability to write mellifluous English influenced by Romanian cadences. It is clear that he wishes to do service for the country he never lost touch with during 25 years in exile. Perhaps one way is to motivate and instruct young people with similar talents and ambitions to the ones he possessed in the 1960s.
The need for Romanians to rediscover the characteristic of group solidarity which Roman encountered in the British university world but which disappeared in communist Romania is a pressing one. That is why his story deserves to be better-known in Romania.

[Read more →]

Tags:·············

Four Book Reviews by Constantin ROMAN – Biographies of Hugh Trevor-Roper, Salomé Zourabichvili, George Orwell,

May 14th, 2014 · No Comments · Books, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Reviews

When in old age he found himself the master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, he reviewed “Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England” by Maurice Cowling, the history don, who had secured him the Mastership of the oldest Cambridge College. Cowling was the guru to such Conservative Party luminaries as Peregrine Worsthorne and Colin Welch of the Telegraph, and to that extent he was a person of influence. “The subject is the intellectual history of our time and the great spiritual crisis in which we have found ourselves,” Trevor-Roper wrote. “I find, on reading it, that this intellectual history has unfolded itself, and this crisis has been observed, and is to be resolved, almost entirely within the walls of Peterhouse.”

[Read more →]

Tags:·················