John le Carré wrote A Murder of Quality in 1962, the year before he wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The former introduces George Smiley being a detective after a murder at a famous English public school.
Gladwyn Jebb was a distinguished civil servant, diplomat and politician. References to him abound in Kenneth Rose’s Journals and, to a lesser extent, in Harold Nicolson’s Diaries. Curiously Chips Channon only mentions Gladwyn once in his Diaries.
“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like “What about lunch?” (AA Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh)
I wonder how history will treat the actors strutting the Brexit stage? I hope Theresa May comes out with credit. By the time the history books are written she may, in any case, be Duchess of Berkshire, KG, etc.
The fourth wall, as you know, is the space which separates a performer from the audience; or, if you will, the conceptual barrier between a fictional work and its viewers or readers.
On Monday morning I had to sing for my supper at the Foreign Office. The FCO fund election observation missions and want to know how their money has been spent, what we did and what impact it has.