FTWeekend has a column, At home. It is an interview that focuses on the home of somebody interesting. On Saturday it was Mark Henderson.
Mark is chairman of Gieves & Hawkes but also works at promoting British craftsmen, or craftspeople as the pc FT calls them. The last time I saw him was at a wedding in Gloucestershire. His wife and I were co-godparents of the bride. In the church Mark pointed out a local grandee adding, “how embarrassing, he’ll be horrified to see his tailor here”. Before that I had been sailing with him and his badly behaved children in Greece. That holiday must remain like the Giant Rat of Sumatra, to which Sherlock Holmes alludes in The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.
He was interviewed in his flat in Clapham but in fact his principal residence is in Dorset. The interviewer (Jonathan Foyle) sycophantically refers to this as “the Henderson family seat” which I think is a bit of an exaggeration, especially in light of the fact that Mark hails from Essex. He then went way OTT (over the top) in describing the cup of tea Mark brewed for him.
He brings tea in a straight-sided, off-white cup. It is quite a beautiful thing, with a ribbon-loop handle. And it seems at home in this off-white sitting room, where chromatic monotony is alleviated by the forms and shadows of white ceramics set on a white marble fireplace.
Well done, Jonathan, you’ve earned your place in Pseuds Corner in Private Eye. I’m just surprised that Mark didn’t pour you something stronger.
Christopher: I believe I was on that same sailing holiday with the Hendies. I recall their ‘children’ (teenagers, actually) as charming and just boys up to normal teenage activities. It is more likely it was us ‘adults’ who were badly behaved.