Murder Most Foul

I have met Lord Butler more than once, actually only twice. When I sat beside him after dinner on High Table at University College, Oxford, where at the time he was Master, he told me the apogee of his career was the Good Friday Agreement. He was Cabinet Secretary then.

No Business Like Snow Business

Yesterday morning is the first time Bertie has seen snow. Beagles are inquisitive and he marvelled at this phenomenon, although it didn’t take him long to work out it was best appreciated standing under the garden table.

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Categorised as Family

Squirrel Nutkin

Three fat mice, a fine fat mole, seven fat minnows, six fat beetles (each wrapped in a dock-leaf, fastened with a pine-needle pin), wild honey and a new-laid egg.

Nothing is Simple in Wodehouse

“You would probably find that only Shakespeare has inspired an equal amount of critical annotation and scholarship to his equally extensive collected works. It would be difficult to assess which of Shakespeare and Wodehouse wrote the greater number of words in his lifetime – but it would come as no surprise if it turned out… Continue reading Nothing is Simple in Wodehouse

Be Debonair

“You must never confuse genius with a bull market.” (An Englishman’s Commonplace Book, Roger Hudson)

Crossing the Taklamakan

I read Tim Severin’s obituary yesterday. One of his earliest expeditions was crossing the Atlantic in a currach made of wood and animal hides. When he made an unscheduled stop at Iceland almost all his crew deserted him. Severin had a reputation as a less kindly version of Captain Bligh.

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Categorised as Travel

An Expotition

I was in the rear carriage of a District Line train returning from work one evening in 1992. The rear carriage is the fashionable one from which residents living near Gloucester Road and Barons Court debauch. On this occasion I saw the father of my godson. Frankly, I eyed him with some apprehension as I… Continue reading An Expotition

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Categorised as Travel

Does Size Matter?

I have never been to Europe’s largest city, changing ‘planes doesn’t count, but I have visited sixteen out of the twenty largest by population.

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Categorised as Travel

A Delicate Truth

I have two paperbacks by Paul Micou: Rotten Times and The Last Word. You wouldn’t judge a book by its cover, would you?

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Categorised as Literature

Feedback

It’s over to you this morning. It’s a selection of your nostalgic comments in the early days of my website. It was rather Blue Peter; to begin with there were no pictures and then they were upside down, since corrected.