Local Notes

1. Periwinkle, planted in 1984, seems indestructible. It has spent months buried under building materials over the years and gets trampled on by me and the bin men.

Royal Collection

A friend took me to The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace to see Art & Power, an exhibition almost entirely composed of Charles II’s acquisitions.

Published
Categorised as Art, History

Russian Election

There is a Presidential election in Russia on Sunday. 420 Short Term Observers have been deployed. I applied but did not get chosen. Why not?

Published
Categorised as Politics

Oh Happy Day

I have just finished reading Len Deighton’s spy trilogy Berlin Game, Mexico Set, London Match. Immensely enjoyable but when I started, it was with a sense of nostalgia for all that Cold War stuff. Now two things have happened.

Published
Categorised as Literature

Boots

“It was a lonely land then, the vast frontier held by the last scattered remnants of the once great armies that fought the Civil War. To such as these, all but forgotten, doing a dirty, thankless job, without reward or glory, the army was a way of life, the only one they knew or wanted.”

Opera

Three evenings at the opera last week and I didn’t see a single complete opera.

Published
Categorised as Music

Thelma

Thelma Cazalet-Keir (1899 – !989) was a Conservative politician and feminist, serving on the London County Council and as a Member of Parliament. She was also, amongst much else, a member of the Arts Council and a Governor of the BBC.

Where to Invest?

A friend has a relatively small amount of money to invest and has asked my advice. He already has a much larger conservatively invested portfolio and would like to diversify. He is after capital growth and not worried about income. 

Published
Categorised as Business

PLA

Ten Trinity Square was built around the time of WWI as the headquarters of the recently established (1908) Port of London Authority (PLA). Today it is a luxury hotel and I thought that London now is insignificant as a port but, as so often, I am wrong.

Family History

I am a descendant of Sir John Bellew of Castle Roche, Co Louth. There is more than one interpretation of his ancestors.