It seems to me it’s unusual to have a surname that is a vegetable or herb. The Broccoli dynasty of Bond fame, of course, and the fictional Parsnip created by Evelyn Waugh to mock WH Auden in Put Out More Flags. So I’m pleased to add Parsley to my trug.
Category: Music
The Ring
There may be some elderly folk who can not, but most of us can remember every Ring cycle we have seen. We are talking about Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. I have never seen the operas consecutively but I remember the ones I didn’t get to. I had not heard of Fulham Opera when they staged it… Continue reading The Ring
Dress to be Killed
My generation is divided into those who went to see Maureen Potter in panto at the Gaiety and those, like me, who went to see Jack Cruise at the Olympia. Miss Hickey, a spinster friend of Mrs McGinn, gave me an autograph book. She thoughtfully stood at the stage door to christen it with JC’s… Continue reading Dress to be Killed
Arms and the Man
Arma virumque cano (of arms and the man I sing) as Virgil puts it so succinctly in the Aeneid. A reader tells me a schoolboy hazarded this translation: “I sing of arms, men and dogs, sir”. I cannot sing but I do want to flaunt my Arms. The late Sir Iain Moncreiffe in Simple Heraldry, Cheerfully… Continue reading Arms and the Man