Month: July 2020

Double-chamfered

This spectacular monument, in Pevsner’s opinion but I concur, is in the south aisle of St Mary Magdalene in Great Offley, Hertfordshire.

Uncle George Remembers XVI

“Although such incidents (the canopy cock-up) during the rehearsals could be treated lightly at the time, they were nevertheless disturbing to “the management” and had to be ironed out lest they be repeated on The Day.

The Big Double

“This year’s Punchestown Festival will be remembered for its marvellous attendence and for the glorious week’s weather . People flocked from all over the country, and from abroad, to attend the festivities. The latest fashions were on show and all types of motor car were seen making their way down the Naas Road.”

Més que un chess club

If you know a finer clubhouse for chess aficionados, tell me. This is the Nuovo Circolo Degli Scacchi in Rome. It’s almost worth playing chess to belong but I can pop in as a reciprocal member and have done so.

My Assets

Walking to Richmond last Friday, I had time to think about my portfolio and how it could be made less volatile while capturing most of my annual Capital Gains Tax allowance at the same time.

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Categorised as Business

Coronavirus Chronicle VIII

This year it will be on Thursday 13th November. It’s when, in the old days, I used to go out at lunchtime in the City and drink Beaujolais Nouveau until I was sick. This exceptional year it was yesterday; the first day Londoners could go out on the lash in pubs and restaurants since March.

Wartime Reading List

John Colville’s Downing Street Diaries are not what they seem He could be taken to task under the Trade Descriptions Act (1968) as on the first page he “was living in luxury, at least by war-time standards, and basking in the Prime Minister’s favour.”

Quizzers

I have just bought an inexpensive, second-hand, dog-eared  paperback published in 1987 in which are appended the author’s biographical notes on some of the people mentioned. Can you identify even one of them?

Uncle George Remembers XIV

“Although it could be said that the Earl Marshal’s office is wherever he happens to be working at the moment, he had a permanent set of chambers in the House of Lords, which were not very splendid, nor very comfortable, and they reminded one of a church vestry because of their substantial Victorian gothic decoration… Continue reading Uncle George Remembers XIV