I have just finished the last of the three books by Frank Gardner that I was given for my birthday: Crisis. The first two are autobiographical and this is a thriller with an unimaginative title.
It is an exciting read with scenes shifting between North Korea, Colombia and the UK. The hero is an MI6 agent. In this genre the reader has to believe that the facts are true and Gardner has done his research well enough for me not to spot any howlers. In fact he has personal experience of many of the locations from his travels and his job as BBC Security Correspondent.
A friend was given, by his Book Club, a similar thriller by Dame Stella Rimington. You may remember that she was the first woman to be Director General of MI5, serving in the 1990s. My friend asked me to read a few pages – a scene set in my club. Dame Stella must have visited more than once. She had the layout perfectly, right down to the dark green leather sofas in the library. The hero, I think, is playing backgammon in the small room on the ground floor opposite the porters’ lodge. The game is interrupted when the Hall Porter announces the arrival of his luncheon guest – his god daughter. Oh dear, nobody told Dame Stella that, by custom, ladies do not lunch at the club (although a few years ago Helena Bonham-Carter defied this convention).
Yesterday was my first Prom – at lunchtime at Cadogan Hall. Jean Rondeau played early 18th century harpsichord pieces by Rameau, Couperin and Royer. My guest opined that he looked scruffy. It was a bravura performance not least because he played for fifty minutes with no music. It did cross my mind that perhaps he sometimes made it up and this was confirmed in his final piece – a world premier by Eve Risser, born in France in 1982.
In the programme she writes: “he understands what I write and the way I write it. If details are missing from the score, it’s because I want him to be able to improvise and and use his natural feelings to put across what I would like to transmit”. It seems to me that composition for the harpsichord reached its apogee in the 18th century.