Category: Family

The Great Game

This picture, in the British Library, was taken at Jamrud Fort during the return from a Durbar at Umballa. Amir Sher Ali Khan is in the centre with Colonel Frederick Pollock standing, Colonel Crawford Trotter Chamberlain sitting on the right and to the left, Henry Walter Bellew, Indian Medical Service, acting as interpreter.

Uncle Herbrand

Although I was eleven when he died, I don’t remember Uncle Herbrand well. I do often think of him as I have his hairbrushes.

Do Not Resuscitate

The local council, Hammersmith and Fulham, have one department with which I cannot find fault; tree maintenance. They regularly prune the crab apple tree on the pavement outside our house and plant new trees when necessary. Our streetscape would be impoverished without their diligence and care.

Zither Time

Seventy years ago The Third Man was released with zither action. I read that in The Oldie but it reminded me that my sister worked for Shirley Abicair, famous for plucking the zither.

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Charles Boutell

I share some of the same interests and initials as CB. He is a Victorian, a Norfolk man, no fool; he went to St John’s Cambridge (BA) and Trinity Oxford (MA).

Women at Work

My Jameson grandmother never went to school; she had a governess. My Hill grandmother may have been to school but she was no blue stocking.

The Eyes Have It

Luis Buñuel ‘s 1929 film, Un Chien Andalou, has a scene in which an eyeball is slit with a razor. Arabesque, a 1966 comedy-caper starring Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren has a scene early on in which a scientist is killed by having toxic eye drops administered by a baddie posing as an optician.

Motion Pictures

Early yesterday morning I was lucky to see one of the peregrine falcon fledglings fly from its nest to the roof at the north east corner of Charing Cross Hospital. Most of the time they either sit still or slowly sidle crabwise along the ledge where they were born.

Bertie Goes to Barnes

The Bellews are of Norman stock. We trace our lineage, without using too much imagination, back to the 13th century. Bertie has a fertile imagination claiming he’s mentioned in Greek documents circa 400 BC.