Christmas Cracker This poem about Anthony Blunt, would have delighted John Julius Norwich; it surely would have been in his Christmas Cracker. Who’d have guessed it? Blunt a traitor And a homosexualist, Carrying on with tar and waiter – There’s a sight I’m glad I missed. It would earn its place because it comes from Harvest… Continue reading Ritz Crackers
Midnight in Minsk
y Every Picture Tells a Story Sveltana Alexievich has a flat in this apartment building. She knows how to tell a story. She has written about the Second World War, sorry The Great Patriotic War, the war in Afghanistan and Chernobyl. Her technique is to interview people and tell the story through their words. This… Continue reading Midnight in Minsk
Barons Court to Belarus
Local Film Star Anthony Quayle is the only actor in the picture most people will remember; for his parts in Ice Cold in Alex and Lawrence of Arabia, probably. He was not as well known in 1935 as Roy Byford in the centre. Roy (1873-1939) was in a fair few early films beginning in 1916 but… Continue reading Barons Court to Belarus
East West Street
Arms and the Man
Arma virumque cano (of arms and the man I sing) as Virgil puts it so succinctly in the Aeneid. A reader tells me a schoolboy hazarded this translation: “I sing of arms, men and dogs, sir”. I cannot sing but I do want to flaunt my Arms. The late Sir Iain Moncreiffe in Simple Heraldry, Cheerfully… Continue reading Arms and the Man