School Stories

Inappropriate crying is something I do. I never squeeze out a drop at funerals and seldom at operas.

Sunset at Barons Court

A good sunset in the cemetery yesterday. I had a walk with Luna, a small, bonkers black spaniel that struck up an instant emotional rapport with Bertie. I likewise warmed to Luna’s owner. 

The Last of Uptake

Published in 1942 by BT Batsford Ltd, The Last of Uptake does not take the knee to wartime economies.

Black Friday

I made a small purchase at a shop that does not observe Black Friday and has reassuringly high prices.

Hares and Rabbits

Pinch and a punch, it’s the first of the month. Wake up when Farming Today is on. That means before 6.00.

Naughty Frances

Fiona Moorhouse’s recent comments have started me thinking about the four Lord Bellews of the First Creation.

Schotterrasen

The munificent EU has bestowed another gift, the last probably, to Hammersmith of which we will treat later. Meanwhile what’s happening in the ‘hood?

Batsford

It is sometimes instructive to judge a book by its cover. Nobody could mistake the E Phillips Oppenheim cover in yesterday’s post for a treatise on bee keeping, unless the protagonists are being stung.

Good Crap

PG Wodehouse was prolific and successful but there was another genre in the first half of the last century – between the wars – and those authors made more money. Edgar Wallace and Somerset Maugham rivalled our subject today in popularity and earnings.

Cross Words

“Man chasing solution, endlessly in bind, shows spirit (5, 2, 6).” Times Crossword 27,831.