London will be deprived of an Old Etonian mayor next year (Rory has pulled out) but we have an articulate and intelligent Prime Minister, a classicist, and an OE. Another OE, an even more intellectual member of the Establishment, has not minced his words. If you do mince them it is an anagram of sword… Continue reading An Assumption
Category: Politics
What Now? What Next?
The Easter Egg
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
Knights and Daze
Midnight in Minsk
y Every Picture Tells a Story Sveltana Alexievich has a flat in this apartment building. She knows how to tell a story. She has written about the Second World War, sorry The Great Patriotic War, the war in Afghanistan and Chernobyl. Her technique is to interview people and tell the story through their words. This… Continue reading Midnight in Minsk
Barons Court to Belarus
Local Film Star Anthony Quayle is the only actor in the picture most people will remember; for his parts in Ice Cold in Alex and Lawrence of Arabia, probably. He was not as well known in 1935 as Roy Byford in the centre. Roy (1873-1939) was in a fair few early films beginning in 1916 but… Continue reading Barons Court to Belarus
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