The Producers

I remember seeing the great Mel Brooks/Gene Wilder combo in The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974) but I never clocked that The Producers was made into a musical in 2001.

Farewell, Prime Minister

Foreign Office mandarins today must be highly pleased with events. Ambiguity is often their preferred avenue and this week the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been in China on a mission to encourage closer economic ties. Tomorrow Tom Tugendhat, no friend of China, arrives in Taiwan to demonstrate the UK’s commitment there.

Overlap

I have almost finished the biography of Churchill by Roy Jenkins. In a way I wish it were shorter, in a way I find it engrossing and in another way I find it induces post-prandial somnolence.

La Dame aux Camélias

I saw a camellia in bud at Chiswick House today and thought of Violetta, Verdi and La traviata.

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Categorised as Local, Nature

Project Gutenberg

The oldest library in the world is thought to be the Library of Ashurbanipal in modern day Iraq. When it was founded in the 7th century BC it was in Assyria, a city-state in Mesopotamia. The oldest continuously working library may be the Al-Qarawiyyin library in Fez, Morocco, dating from 859 AD (a suspiciously precise… Continue reading Project Gutenberg

Marmalade Overdrive

If you want a nip of whisky for breakfast on a chilly morning this is the obvious choice.

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.

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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

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Categorised as Literature