Culture in Hereford

Arthur's Dad told me about an exhibition in the Art Gallery in Hereford, of work by Edward Ardizzone. He illustrated a lot of children's books, until his death in 1979, and had a style that was instantly recognisable, so I was interested to see what else he had done. There were film posters, and illustrations for books for adults, as well as lots of the children's illustrations, and the exhibition also showed pictures of the artist at work in his studio, and told a little bit about his life.
The space was being shared with a local Herefordshire artist, Brian Hatton, one of that generation of talented men who were wiped out by the First World War. He died in Egypt in 1916, but not before he had painted some impressions of life there - apparently he wasn't an official artist, so he was free to paint whatever took his fancy.
Later, I indulged in a bit of 'retail therapy' and found myself in the Entertainer toyshop, which has taken over part of the building that used to be Chadd's department store. I didn't see anything I wanted, but I got talking to the young man behind the counter - and had to mention to him: "It's a bit sexist, the layout, isn't it?"
He looked blank. He'd obviously never considered it.
So I pointed to the area of the shop decorated in light blue. "Boys' toys," and then to the area that was awash with pink; "Girls' toys."
"We've got Preschool," he said, slightly desperately.
"That's not really the point, though, is it?" I asked. "I mean, why shouldn't a girl have a sword for a pirate?" I pointed to the pirate toy section, which was firmly in the blue area of the shop. "When I was a kid, I would have wanted one of those. I thought this sort of thing was going out of fashion in the seventies!"
As I was leaving (poor lad - he only works there - he didn't design the layout) I noticed that the shop had won an award for Toyshop of the Year last year.
I mention this because, over the Christmas period, there was a campaign on just this issue centred on the famous Hamley's toyshop in London, which separated boys and girls onto entirely different floors of the shop - and they have now changed their layout by the type of toy, rather than the presumed sex of the child who will like it.