Tuesday evening was a time to remember two men I didn’t know but admired.
James Lees-Milne died twenty-five years ago and Hugh Massingberd fifteen years ago. Another anniversary: twenty years ago Hugh Massingberd’s adaptation of J L-M’s diaries, Ancestral Voices, premiered at The Jermyn Street Theatre. I saw it there and then again when it was performed at Buscot Park for one night in the small private theatre attached to the house. On Tuesday it was revived at The Travellers’ Club with Martin Jarvis playing J L-M with brio. The audience was restricted to members of Brooks’s (J L-M’s club) and, of course, members of The Travellers’ (HM’s club) with friends of both men invited too – an exclusive and appreciative audience some of whom, gratifyingly, read this blog.
Afterwards we dined in the library. AN Wilson spoke before dinner as did Craig Brown and Michael Bloch – all friends of James and Hugh. In fact I did meet Hugh once and he proposed my becoming a freelancer for The Daily Telegraph assisting with City obituaries. Flattering but I was not likely to know the City grandees that would feature. But I digress. I was fortunate to sit beside a colleague of HM at the DT and he shared some of his memories often about gargantuan lunches.
He had a good story about David Ormsby-Gore (An Ambassador in the Family) when he was a New Boy at Eton. An older boy in his House committed suicide and the House Master gathered the boys to ask if they knew any reason for this. David O-G piped up; “Could it have been the food, sir?” It was an evening of good stories in excellent company.
