A sub-optimal aspect of Christmas as a child was writing thank you letters. Here are twelve such letters invented by John Julius Norwich and published in his Christmas Crackers, 2000 – 2009.
“I’d like a big box of soluble Solpadeine Plus, please” is a tongue twister over which I stumble. By the way, I’m not OD-ing just stock-piling in case of post-Brexit shortages.
I saw Robert Vaughn (sic) in Twelve Angry Men in the West End in 2013. Also in the cast was Martin Shaw, of The Professionals fame, who dined with me at the Ivy Club afterwards. We were guests of LAMDA, where he trained.
Recently I have seen nine one act plays by Noël Coward and Miss Julie by Strindberg at the tiny Jermyn Street Theatre; all excellent. Last night Jermyn Street continued its winning streak.
St Mary the Virgin in Mortlake was built in 1543, replacing a 14th century church closer to the river on the site of what was a 20th century brewery and is 21st century flats.
The red blob marks the village of Kilbrittain, population 216. I went there more than a decade ago for a birthday party which went on for three inebriated days and nights.
There’s a lot of comfort in a good old-fashioned detective novel written in the first half of the 20th century. I exclude anything by Agatha Christie – her’s bore me stiff.