Water Music

I heard the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra play at a classical music festival in Dorset quite a few years ago. The setting was spectacular looking down to Studland Bay and a group of us camped. The whole thing was made even more enjoyable because very few people turned up – only about 800 the night we… Continue reading Water Music

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Categorised as Music

What’s Cooking?

  The UK stock market has been doing much better than I expected in the aftermath of Brexit. However, it is early days in an economic narrative that will unfold over many years. Here is an update on something which is playing out more rapidly.

Sweet Caress

Does the title indicate that on the Internet a bit of soft porn always goes down well? A not-so-subtle shift to find a new readership? It most certainly does not and you won’t have been fooled as you recognise Sweet Caress as the title of William Boyd’s latest novel.

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Categorised as Literature

Key of the Door

It’s not a very clear picture because of Getty Images wanting to establish their ownership. Here is a better one taken of the same person in the same place as a grown-up: so grown-up that he is Prime Minister. If you have politically prococious offspring and want a photo like the top one there are… Continue reading Key of the Door

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Categorised as Politics

Unpaid Workers

Politicians try to endear themselves to the electorate, in a democracy, by promising to crack-down on something that they think will please voters. Theresa May is no exception. She opened the batting with a call for workers to be represented in the boardroom and for curbs on directors’ pay. Admirable sentiments that remind me of… Continue reading Unpaid Workers

Tommy Jameson

In a recent post, On Appro, I referred to my grandmother’s brother, Tommy Jameson. My Bellew grandfather was listed in The Field magazine among the best 150 shots in an article celebrating 150 years of that magazine’s publication. He represented both England and Ireland shooting clay pigeons and was a fine sporting shot. However, his… Continue reading Tommy Jameson

ARM Wrestling

ARM Holdings is a UK high-tech company founded in Cambridge about twenty-five years ago. They design widgets, tiny widgets, called microchips, even smaller than the ones we eat when dieting. Some readers have been shareholders, not me. I couldn’t because it broke two of my investment rules: I didn’t understand their business model and the… Continue reading ARM Wrestling

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Categorised as Business

Lunchtime Prom

The Prom I went to on Monday wasn’t at the Albert Hall and there were no Prommers. It was at lunchtime at Cadogan Hall, near Sloane Square.

First Slice Your Cookbook

The Earldom of Moray, pronounced “Murray” like the tennis player, is an ancient Scottish title going back to the 14th century. We need not concern ourselves with those early holders of the title. The 18th Earl, born in 1894, married a Barbara Murray from Fifth Avenue, New York, in 1922. I wonder if they were… Continue reading First Slice Your Cookbook

The Blues

It’s summertime, the weather in London is fine and everything in the garden is looking good; a sea of blue agapanthus against a backdrop of white jasmine. Yet I have never felt so uneasy about life.

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Categorised as Politics