The Battle of Britain

Roy Jenkins’ biography of Churchill is sometimes dull but more often of interest. He digresses, something of which I approve, to relate his own experiences.

Rape and Pillage

Mind the Gap last month mentioned in passing that activist investors are circling some Baillie Gifford funds that trade at big discounts. I didn’t think it affected any of the investment trusts I own but I was wrong.

Published
Categorised as Business

Some Observations

Sorry, Ella, it was a sunny day in London Town yesterday. We walked through The Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and saw snowdrops.

Reginald in Russia

Reginald sat in a corner of the Princess’s salon and tried to forgive the furniture, which started out with an obvious intention of being Louis Quinze, but relapsed at frequent intervals into Wilhelm II. He classified the Princess with that distinct type of woman that looks as if it habitually went out to feed hens… Continue reading Reginald in Russia

Published
Categorised as Literature

The Past is a Foreign Country

Opinions will vary about the qualities and policies of “Make America Great Again”, president-elect, Trump. He puts me in mind of Palmerston.

Published
Categorised as Politics

Quare Fellows

I get muddled between Bowles and Burroughs. Both American writers who lived in Tangiers, were gay and of a similar vintage; Bowles 1910 – 1999, Burroughs 1914 – 1997.

Partial Portraits

Winston Churchill in Great Contemporaries writes biographies of twenty-five famous men, there are no women, who he knew. It’s an appealing format and one any of us could adopt but could we, would we?

Christmas with Chips IV

Chips (Channon) records Christmas Day in his diary: 1944 – 1952. Monday 25th December, 1944. The Old Rectory, Elveden, Suffolk. A day too ghastly and cold almost to chronicle! Paul and I started out in the very cold for Henlow at 11.15: thick fog overtook us as we crept the whole way – warm welcome… Continue reading Christmas with Chips IV

Published
Categorised as Literature

Christmas with Chips III

Chips (Channon) records Christmas Day in his diary: 1940 – 1944. Christmas Day, Wednesday 25th December, 1940. HMS Edinburgh Castle, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Of all the Christmases this is the most exhausting and unpleasant. I didn’t sleep last night for the noise of the lizards at Bathurst racing in my room . . . and… Continue reading Christmas with Chips III

Published
Categorised as Literature

Christmas with Chips II

Chips (Channon) records Christmas Day in his diary: 1936 – 1939. Friday, 25th December, 1936. A day of cards, we must have had nearly 300 from all over the earth, but none from either poor Wallis Simpson nor the Duke of Windsor. Many cables, but bad presents. Honor, Paul and I are all ill, or… Continue reading Christmas with Chips II

Published
Categorised as Literature