Crown, Shamrock & Brexit

Instituted in 1783 to assist Irish persons in need, resident in London. Registered Charity Number: 214824. President: Lord Aylmer. Patron: The Duke of Abercorn KG The President and Committee of The Benevolent Society of St Patrick request the pleasure of your company at a Talk by Mary Kenny, “Crown, Shamrock & Brexit”, on Wednesday 8th… Continue reading Crown, Shamrock & Brexit

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Categorised as Charities

Risotto & Ratio

My great-great-great-great grandfather is a distinguished Spanish mathematician and scientist. It would be repetitious to write about him as older readers will remember the story from a September 2015 post, A Spy in the Family.

Parkes Police

Robert remarked that he’d seen a plethora of Parks Police cars; a lot of alliteration today. Today Hammersmith and Fulham have a joint police force (the Parks Police Service) to patrol the parks on their patch. They look like police but in fact only have the same powers as any other citizens.

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Categorised as History

Five Go Down to the Sea

The title may ring a bell if you grew up on a literary diet of Enid Blyton. In fact we were four as our fifth had a knee injury and we didn’t have Timmy, the dog in the Famous Five series.

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Categorised as Art, Travel

The Life

I expected twelve volumes of James Lees-Milne’s diaries to last me through the winter but like a case of wine they were consumed more quickly than anticipated. I finished them with considerable sadness one morning last week.

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Categorised as Literature

Palm Oil

This is what WWF says: Palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet, and it is in about half of all packaged products sold in the supermarket. While palm oil is the most efficient source of vegetable oil, its rapid expansion threatens some of the planet’s most important and sensitive habitats. 

Grave Matters

It took a third visit to find this rather prominent grave at St Nicholas’s Chiswick. It is in a part of the graveyard that I thought only had modern headstones.

Blue Sky Drinking

I find a Bloody Mary a great mental stimulant. Top Tip is to start with the small bits: lemon juice, Tabasco, Lea & Perrins, pepper, best not to add celery salt as the tomato juice has plenty of that. Then chuck in the ice, vodka and tomato juice – eureka!

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Categorised as Environment

Best Books

“It is a good deal more than unlikely that any writer now living will produce a better historical novel than Henry Esmond, a better tale of children than The Golden Age, a sharper social vignette than Madame Bovary, a more graceful and elegant evocation than The Spoils of Poynton, a wider and richer canvas than… Continue reading Best Books

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Categorised as Literature

HP Sauce

“In my father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2). I stay in a house with many bedrooms and in every one is a copy of Rathcormick: a Childhood Recalled (2001) by Homan Potterton.

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Categorised as Literature