Flamboyance by Jack Parlett review – a serious study of the spectacular

What does it mean to push the boat out, and can peacocking be more than just a beautiful gesture? A friend’s mother once told me that for a couple of years in the 1980s – as the Conservatives were waging war on the miners and she spent late nights at Marxist-feminist reading groups – she wore an almost daily uniform of jeans and a white T-shirt. On her wedding day she broke with habit and put on a dress she had bought, at great expense to her, that was fun, sexy and, although she didn’t use t...

By John-Baptiste Oduor