Category: Literature

Writers Bloch

On Tuesday morning I was reading James Lees-Milne’s diaries. I have got as far as 1979 and he has formed an intense friendship with Michael Bloch. Later I went to lunch at the Savile and was delighted to meet him there.

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Secondhand in Chiswick

On Sundays Robert plays tennis in Chiswick and last weekend he suggested that I walked there to meet him for lunch. The transition from the, frankly, run-down purlieus of Hammersmith to chi-chi Chiswick is remarkable.

Back to Basics

I read Venetia Ansell’s blog with interest because her life is so different to my own. She divides her time between Bangalore and an up-country coffee plantation she has bought with her husband and where they live, rather primitively by my standards.

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Sword of Bone

Anthony Rhodes was born in 1916. He went to Rugby and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. The army sent him to Trinity College, Cambridge to study Mechanical Engineering. He graduated in 1939 just in time to join the Royal Engineers and serve in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force.

Swaledale

Today I’m storming up the M1 with Robert to Swaledale in Yorkshire. Specifically to Keld, the village where Rupert Hart-Davis had so many happy holidays with his mistress. They moved there eventually when he retired and was able to marry her.

Mr Kidson

There is much good stuff in The Enigma of Kidson and rather a weepy end, as so often with biographies of mortals.

Twiggy

When I was at Eton I was up to Michael Kidson for History when I was doing O Levels. Unfortunately for me I was not in his div when I did History A Level, my D grade is testament to that.

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The Truth about Trump

A reader in the West Country has trumped me in the Bitters department. He sent this picture of two specimens that have eluded my collection. This reminds me that he alerted me to a lovely conspiracy theory that was doing the rounds among the in-crowd in the United States late last year.

Come-to-Good

In a recent post, More Jottings, I mentioned joining the National Churches Trust. It turns out to be rather a bargain. The minimum subscription is £30 and when you join you receive this 192 page hardback coffee table filler that sells for £20.

I Once Met Pius XII

I enjoy the I Once Met column in The Oldie. If you are a fan Richard Ingrams edited two anthologies. James Lees-Milne’s diary entry for Tuesday 14th September 1948 qualifies for, although I don’t think has appeared in, I Once Met. He was on holiday in Rome and was granted an audience with the Pope (Pius… Continue reading I Once Met Pius XII