Dolce Vita Confidential

The title of this new book by Shawn Levy continues “Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome”. La Dolce Vita, as you will not need reminding, is Federico Fellini’s 1960 masterpiece.

Perfidious

You read “perfidious” and append Albion. Yup, there’s been plenty of dirty work at the crossroads but the UK does not have a monopoly in this department.

Published
Categorised as History

Consultations

Like Sherlock Holmes I am often consulted. These consultations take many forms.

Published
Categorised as Politics

Nesselrode Pie

A theme of the Lyttelton/Hart-Davis letters is R H-D’s prodigious appetite for reading and eating. Not surprisingly, he is writing around 1960, the best meals are abroad.

Sentebale

I only glance at a restaurant bill but when I glanced at this one I didn’t recognise the £1 charge for Sentebale. It’s not the money, as people say when it is the money, it was curiosity.

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Categorised as Charities

The Long View

As Article 50 is triggered many of us take a long view. On BBC Radio 4 The Long View makes a comparison with the overtures made by Elizabeth I to Turkey, Asia and North Africa to open trade routes. You can hear it on iPlayer so it would be otiose to go on about that.

Tahiti

In 2008 I saw a double bill in Trieste but first a bit about the city. It has one of the finest squares in Europe, one side of which opens onto the Adriatic. The architecture reflects the history of the city as the main port for the Austro-Hungarian empire. In its heyday it was the… Continue reading Tahiti

Published
Categorised as Music

Democracy or Dominant Minority?

I am going, metaphorically, to skate on thin ice. I don’t know much about Obama’s health care legislation or Trump’s proposed but rejected reforms.

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Categorised as Politics

Rum Doodle

Today I’m going for a little-longer-than-usual walk; a fourteen-miler in Cambridgeshire to raise money for the Royal Marsden Hospital. It will be a doddle in comparison with The Ascent of Rum Doodle.

Published
Categorised as Literature