I hoped to wake up in Skopje this morning; in the Balkans following in the footsteps of Saki who was there before the First World War as foreign corespondent for The Morning Post; a warm, sunny Easter weekend ahead.
Category: History
Steel’s List
The Tangier Regiment
Eliza Walstein
The Hibernian Catch Club
Members of White’s are proud that their club is the oldest gentleman’s club in London, founded in 1693. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge are members. Across the Irish Sea the Hibernian Catch Club was already thriving – it was founded circa 1680 – and I never knew of its existence until… Continue reading The Hibernian Catch Club
What the Dickens
Recently I saw The Personal History of David Copperfield; an enjoyable romp through a book I have not read. The cast is starry but it’s a story that is a magnet for stars. Personally I like the 1935 version but you may prefer the 1969 film with Ralph Richardson, Richard Attenborough, Laurence Olivier, Susan Hampshire,… Continue reading What the Dickens
The Mountbattens
Bertie Wooster describes Sir Roderick Glossop as “a high-priced loony doctor … over the years practically every posh family in the country has called him in at one time or another”. In the words of the late, much lamented, Wodehousian, Norman Murphy: “ Wodehouse never made anything up”. Indeed he based Sir Roderick on Dr… Continue reading The Mountbattens
From the Banks of the Neva
This is the beginning but it’s in Finnish: “rakentaa kuin Iisakin Kirkkoa”. Put it into Google Translate, unless you speak Finnish, and you get: “to build like the Church of Isaac”. A Finn might use this expression referring to the Heathrow expansion plans or the construction of Crossrail and HS2; in fact any project that… Continue reading From the Banks of the Neva
From Russia …
The Romanov Tombs You need to know your iconostasis from your elbow and not muddle them up with a reredos in Russian churches. But let’s get back to my childhood at Barmeath. My grandfather was a fount of knowledge and I lapped it up, like I slurp gin now. The general sense of the story… Continue reading From Russia …
A Tale of Two Town Halls
This magnificent building was completed in 1897. It cost £28,000; considered extravagant by its opponents. It fronted onto Brook Green Road and Hammersmith Broadway. It was Hammersmith Town Hall. It was designed in the ornate Italian manner, a style that had been popular for metropolitan municipal architecture since at least the 1860s but which was… Continue reading A Tale of Two Town Halls