Franklin and Eleanor

Having lived the war with Alan Brooke I am doing it all over again with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. A friend, the same friend who gave me Tommy Lascelles’ diaries, has given me No Ordinary Time – Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

A Modest Proposal

The Friends of Margravine Cemetery are aware of the problem of drugs being sold in the cemetery and this month will bring their concerns to the attention of the Parks Police and the police. I hope a representative from Hammersmith and Fulham Council might attend too.

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I Berlin

It is always interesting how two diarists record the same event, in this case lunch at 10 Downing Street on 9th February, 1944.

Come into the Garden

As you are on a virtual tour we can start in the walled garden. My brother started by restoring the walls which had become overgrown with ivy and overhanging boughs. Then he set to work on the garden – a jungle where he kept his release pens.

A Brief History

In the 19th century the four acre walled garden had heated hothouses and some twenty gardeners. When my grandparents came back from Gloucestershire to live at Barmeath in 1938 the house had been empty for about ten years and house and gardens were both in a sorry state.

The Tour Continues

We are now on the first floor landing, above where you entered the hall earlier. The surrounds and pediments above the doors are eye-catching as is the plasterwork in the centre of the ceiling. The chandelier is Waterford glass bought inexpensively in Venice at the end of the 19th century. The door at the end… Continue reading The Tour Continues

Trials and Tribulations

Alan Brooke’s diaries have an unexpected dimension. His meticulous accounts of meetings, sherry parties, dinners and time with his family and bird books are what I expected and get. 

Brief Encounter

Alessandro Cicognini’s name is not familiar outside Italy. He was, he died aged 89 in 1995, a prolific composer of music for Italian films – more than a hundred. David Lean’s name is definitely familiar.