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.
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.
The St Leger has been run on Town Moor outside Doncaster since 1776, or thereabouts. It’s the oldest of the Classics run over a mile, six furlongs and 132 yards in September.
Kingsley Amis peaked early with Lucky Jim, published in 1954 when he was 32. He never wrote anything remotely as good and it beats me how Ending Up got nominated for the Booker Prize. I suppose the judges warmed to it as it’s only 113 pages.
I took Bali along the towpath to Richmond yesterday morning while Robert kept an eye on Bertie. It was high tide so not much avian activity on the foreshore.
Regrettably I was the only one on the oil futures desk who knew why Catholic parts of Europe had a holiday on 15th August; the Feast of the Assumption. In our increasingly secular society this year this Holy Day assumes significance for cineastes too.