Local Heroine

A first floor flat at 4 Glazbury Road was sold for £760,000 in 2018. Mr and Mrs S Pilling, who lived there when it was a house more than a century ago would be surprised.

You Must Be Joking

If you are reading this you shouldn’t. You should go to YouTube and search for You Must Be Joking (b&w, 1965, Michael Winner).

Ukrainian Themes

There was serendipity reading War with Russia yesterday morning whilst listening to Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes by Sergei Lyapunov on BBC Radio 3.

War Games

Perhaps an antagonistic bull would buy this paperback if he were a bull in an airport bookshop. The publisher (Coronet) has packaged it to make it as unappealing as possible to a thoughtful reader.

Afghan Wars

Two Afghan wars in the 19th century are often quoted as a warning the Russians, then the US, UK and their allies and now perhaps China should have heeded.

Glass War

Two examples of dirty tricks targeting foreign powers in the 21st and 17th centuries.

A Quest for Queen Alexandra

I will go to look at the new memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales, but at first sight it does not appeal. Perhaps it will look better in the context of its garden setting outside Kensington Palace.

A Dolls’ House

I have finished The Quest for Queen Mary. There was one more especially enjoyable piece: James Pope-Hennessy’s visit to Copenhagen to meet Prince and Princess Axel of Denmark.

The Quest

I enjoyed Hugo Vickers’ diaries written when he was writing Cecil Beaton’s biography (Malice in Wonderland) so it was just a step back of thirty years to James Pope-Hennessy’s diaries when he was writing Queen Mary’s biography.