Strolling About on the Roof of the World ( Strollers, to its friends) is the title of a book published in 2001 to mark the first hundred years of what is now The Royal Society For Asian Affairs. They have another centenary to mark this year.
A recent comment, by John Fairhead, turns my thoughts to the entry barrier to London clubs. It was reported that Jeremy Paxman was blackballed from the Garrick a few years ago; “too pleased with himself”, apparently, but then he does have a lot to be pleased about.
The Goya exhibition at London’s National Gallery is well worth at least one visit. It shows his portraits in more or less chronological order. Various aspects appealed to me.
This post is about someone who wrote more than 170 novels, 18 plays and 917 short stories. In 1928 a quarter of all books sold in the UK were by this author. One more clue: this person wrote the screenplay for King Kong.
Lord Ashcroft is probably feeling a bit unloved at the moment. His relationship with the Conservative party and the Prime Minister is finished forever I guess.
Leather Armchairs is a book by Charles Graves, the poet Robert’s brother, published in 1963. It has a foreword by P G Wodehouse, which is a good start, and it describes sixty of the London Clubs then extant.
Service in Prague is done with all the Gallic charm and urgency of a Parisian waiter in an empty bar. However, other aspects of life here are more appealing; food and transport are cheap and the country is beautiful.