Manon Lescaut

Opera Holland Park opened their season with Puccini’s Manon. OHP has come a long way in the last 25 years.

Published
Categorised as Music

A Racehorse for Christmas

I like Peter Starstedt’s 1969 hit Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? Here is one verse. Your name is heard in high places You know the Aga Khan He sent you a racehorse for Christmas And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, ha-ha-ha.

Published
Categorised as Music, Sport

Racing Green

It took an hour yesterday to buy a used car. Last week it took longer than that to buy a toner cartridge for the printer.

Driving Mister Bertie

Earlier this year I posited that the expanded London Ultra Low Emissions Zone, effective in 2021, will stop me owning a car. Well, I can change my mind, can’t I?

Hugh Lane

I’m aware more than one reader knows more than me about Sir Hugh. He came to mind when a friend in California sent me an article by Moran O’Neill based on her book: Hugh Lane: The Art Market and the Art Museum, 1893–1915.

Published
Categorised as Art

Two Clubs

Gentlemens’ clubs in London and around the world are often of great architectural distinction. It would be an agreeable task to visit them and write about their splendours.

The Duchess of Dudley

What became of Alice Dudley when her husband deserted her in 1605? She cannot have been left penniless as she paid most of the bills to build St Giles-in-the-Fields in London in the 1620s.

Published
Categorised as History

Robert Dudley

It’s not unusual for same-sex partners to have children but I was surprised to see that Robert Dudley’s parents are Robert and Douglas. He was born in 1574 in the reign of Elizabeth I.

Published
Categorised as History

Election Update

For a Short Term Observer (STO) polling day is the whole point. For OSCE/ODIHR it is one component of the electoral cycle.

Published
Categorised as Politics