Princess Freda

Yesterday Bertie and I walked up the towpath to Richmond for the first time in over three months. During lockdown there had been many too many cyclists, joggers and walkers to use the towpath safely but now it’s back to pre-virus normal and Bertie was off the lead most of the time.

The Empress of Ireland

You can judge this book by its cover; the cover is orange, the endpapers green. Brian Desmond Hurst was born a Protestant in Belfast but converted to Catholicism so an apt reflection of his life.

Lobster Blog

A long time ago I was staying with friends in Cumberland and we were asked out to dinner. Our host and hostess’s home from the outside was more like a manoir than a Cumbrian farmhouse.

Var-Siklod

Curious how houses often take centre stage in novels: Blandings, Brideshead, Howards End, Lorienburg, Manderley, White Ladies. I hope I can add Var-Siklod to the list.

The Lawrensons

John and George Lawrenson are brothers. John was a General, Colonel of the 13th Hussars, who died in London in 1883 aged eighty-one.

Hungarian Rhapsody

Imprint, noun 1. a mark or outline made by pressing something on to a softer substance. “he made imprints of the keys in bars of soap” 2. a printer’s or publisher’s name, address, and other details in a book or other publication.

Uncle George Remembers VI

“Gordon Selfridge was once a multi-millionaire and a prince of commerce but he ended up a pensioner, deprived of all power and riches and broken in spirit and, I heard, in mind.

All Things to All Men

Today’s text is taken from St Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians. “To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22)