Bertie Goes to Bungay

Only one’s closest friends welcome Bertie as an overnight guest. This is his fourth time away, and two of the previous stays were in France. So far, it has gone well.

This Is No Ordinary Time

“We cannot tell from day to day what may come. This is no ordinary time. No time for weighing anything except what we can do best for the country as a whole, and that responsibility rests on each and every one of us as individuals.”

Any Other Business

Only an experienced investor who has been trading for fifty-one years could lose almost half their capital in ten days. That’s what I have done and my friends who mistakenly look upon me as a financial guru should take note.

Franklin and Winston

Reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s magisterial (no other word could do it justice) No Ordinary Time, I am struck by the similarities and differences between Franklin and Winston during the war.

Georgia On My Mind

Eleven years ago (2009) I went with a few friends to Georgia in the Caucasus for a holiday. We took a flight to Tbilisi from Heathrow and when we walked into the baggage hall I knew what was going to happen.

Cork and Orrery

In September 1941 after supper at the White House, “a jolly party”, Franklin Roosevelt asked his guests to name four outstanding leaders. Eleanor chose: Anne Hutchinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson and Carrie Chapman Catt. Franklin nominated: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and the Earl of Orrery.

Falcon

The falcon chick born aloft Charing Cross Hospital is showing no signs of leaving his parents. As a single male he may never leave and in a few years may mate with his mother. He’s called Jack but Oedipus might be more apt.

To Autumn

Velux window vents closed, central heating on (set at 60 degrees) a scarf selection across the bannisters in the hall; it’s autumn.

Published
Categorised as Poetry

Annual Review

National Churches Trust send their supporters this 52-page account of what they have been up to.

Published
Categorised as Charities

Aunt Bessie

“It rained on Coronation Day in 1953, but nothing like so badly as at the previous coronation in 1937 when it came down like the best of British stair-rods just after the ceremonies in the Abbey had ended and when people were trying to get home.