Category: PG Wodehouse

Under the Weather

I felt a tad under the weather one morning earlier this week. I put it down to a rare tropical disease I might have caught in Singapore in ’89, or possibly a merry dinner in Parsons Green the night before. (Parsons Green lost its apostrophe just before World War I.)

Duel Purpose

I read in the FT three recommendations for places to eat outside in London; a timely feature as the weather warms up. One of their picks is Boulestin in St James’s Street (above) and, before you book a table, you might like my slant.

Anyone for Tennyson?

As far as I know there are no plans to tax poetry, if so it will hit me hard as anthologies will doubtless attract the top rate.

The Faultless Painter

An old friend told me this week that he is taking an evening course at the Slade School of Fine Art but The Faultless Painter doesn’t refer to him. It is the title of a poem by Robert Browning about the Renaissance artist, Andrea del Sarto.

More About Books

The pleasure of rootling around in second-hand bookshops has largely been replaced by instant gratification delivered through shopping on the Internet; largely but not entirely.

Marmalade Matters

You have twenty-two days to submit your entry to the International Marmalade Awards, held annually at Dalemain in Cumbria. Marmalade is submitted from all over the world, so don’t be put off if you don’t live in the UK.

School Stories

It is striking how many successful authors started off by writing school stories: P G Wodehouse, The Pothunters; Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall; Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim, though it is set at university.

Off To The Races

The King George VI Chase  will be run over three miles at Kempton Park later today. At least one reader here will be watching and I’d like to congratulate her on being elected to the Jockey Club this year.