Category: PG Wodehouse

Forsyth Saga

I came across this plaque in Kensington Gardens on Sunday. It is the right time of year to see it because William Forsyth’s Forsythia was flowering.

Ten Things To Do List

1. Write thank you letter to Alistair for inviting me to the Hotel Chocolat last week. Here’s the bar of chocolate I made. Looks like a dog mess but I won’t stress that in my letter.

Thelma

Thelma Cazalet-Keir (1899 – !989) was a Conservative politician and feminist, serving on the London County Council and as a Member of Parliament. She was also, amongst much else, a member of the Arts Council and a Governor of the BBC.

Three Times a Lady

My third Tosca since October: first Rome, then Live from the Met and on Saturday, Covent Garden. Saturday matinees are always popular.

Robert Herrick

Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen is PG Wodehouse’s last complete novel, published in 1974, a year before he died aged ninety-three. At an age when his creative juices might be expected to dry up, it is right up to his usual high standard. If you want to know why Bertie Wooster is mistaken for arch-criminal Alpine Joe… Continue reading Robert Herrick

More Opera

Yesterday was Fulham Opera’s spot. Tomorrow, Saturday,  Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème is on at the Met. I will not be there but I will be in the Curzon Chelsea to watch it being streamed live from New York.

I’m into Something Good

An obsequious, chastened Pious brought him the gin on the stoop. Morgan poured two inches into a glass full of ice, added some bitters and a dash of water. He hated the drink but it seemed the apt thing to do; end of a tropical day, sundowners and all that.

A Gentleman of Leisure

There are 1,321 boys at Eton and 821 at Harrow. Of course this fluctuates as boys come and go, sometimes under a cloud. Even after allowing for the greater number of Old Etonians it is apparent that the number of fictional Old Etonians exceeds fictional Old Harrovians by a big margin.

Whacky Wodehouse

Here’s a book you haven’t read. It will be published early next month.

The Ghastly Affair

Rosherville Gardens was a seventeen acre site on the Thames not far from Gravesend in Kent. It opened in 1837 to provide a day out for Londoners, consisting of pleasure gardens adorned with statues, follies and more than 8,000 specimen trees. Visitors came by paddle-steamer and new attractions were added including bands, jugglers, sword swallowers,… Continue reading The Ghastly Affair