Northern Song gentry and officials, who were concerned largely with tackling issues of national interest and not much for local affairs, preferred painting huge landscape scenes where any individuals were but tiny figures immersed within a larger context.
Thus began a love affair with the landscapes and cultures of the Mediterranean.
Given the landscape of current affairs — let's face it, 2016 was a wash at best — the role of the founder becomes increasingly critical.
The far-reaching Every Child Matters programme and the consequent Children Act 2004, both in large part prompted by the Climbie affair, had also altered the landscape.
Its main focus, though, is Bishop's long and turbulent love affair with the architect and landscape designer Maria Carlota de Macedo Soares and the impact that relationship had on Bishop's development as a writer.
He knows he can't simply do what he wants, however, and, as the young golfer departs and Marly takes up with the landscape designer, their affair depends on their both feeling a little defeated.
Any anxiety Frank feels about the 21st-century Rainbow Nation being wrecked by similar racial violence is eased by distance, his complacent joy in his impeccably modern family (divorce, drugs, adopted Haitian grandson), and a romanticised love affair with the South African landscape.
Instead, according to long-term observers of Thailand's political landscape, this whole affair is about more than removing the present government.
See more of George's work here. .
Gardiner's responsibilities as parliamentary under secretary of state are listed as rural affairs, biosecurity, animal health, commercial projects, landscape issues and climate adaptation.
