A Homan Potterton is as reliable as the eponymous boiler so I have no hesitation in recommending Knockfane, Homan’s first novel, although I’ve not read it yet. Hitherto he has published two acclaimed Memoirs.
John le Carré wrote A Murder of Quality in 1962, the year before he wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The former introduces George Smiley being a detective after a murder at a famous English public school.
Gladwyn Jebb was a distinguished civil servant, diplomat and politician. References to him abound in Kenneth Rose’s Journals and, to a lesser extent, in Harold Nicolson’s Diaries. Curiously Chips Channon only mentions Gladwyn once in his Diaries.
The fourth wall, as you know, is the space which separates a performer from the audience; or, if you will, the conceptual barrier between a fictional work and its viewers or readers.
On Monday morning I had to sing for my supper at the Foreign Office. The FCO fund election observation missions and want to know how their money has been spent, what we did and what impact it has.
I’m reading The Journals of Kenneth Rose in small doses, not because they are heavy going; they are highly readable; there are aperçus on every page and they deserve to be savoured.
Side by Side … by Nicolson and Rose. Kenneth Rose’s journals are, I hope, a bright new star in the literary firmament. Let’s see how they match up to Harold Nicolson’s diaries.