Family Holidays

My sister and brother are ten and eleven years older than me, so I am almost an only child. In August my aunt and uncle would come to stay at Barmeath for two weeks with their children, my cousins, Richard and Caroline. This was the highlight of the year for me.

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Categorised as Family

The Jet Set

Like Pooh’s friend Rabbit, I have many friends and relations, amongst them Sir Peter Bazalgette who steps down as boss of the Arts Council next year, but will not disappear into his Notting Hill burrow.

Royal Ginger (not Prince Harry)

Sensing the onset of a cold I have been self-medicating with draughts of the King’s Ginger. The King is Edward VII, who took over the reins from and reigned after his mother, Queen Victoria.

A Storm in a Teacup

On Friday evening I was at the Grassroots Out (GO) rally at the QE II Centre in Westminster; the same evening David Cameron brought his new deal back from Brussels, so the BBC has to give coverage to the GO rally for balance – clever timing by GO, or just lucky? (You won’t join GO… Continue reading A Storm in a Teacup

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Categorised as Politics

London House Prices

I’ll write those three most hated dinner party words again, “London house prices”.  Like Glenda Slagg in Private Eye, aren’tcha sick of ’em?

Lords and Ladies

An attempt is being made to slow the rate at which hereditary titles become extinct; no I don’t know why either. Lord Trefgarne has introduced a Succession to Peerages Bill in the House of Lords which, if it receives Royal Assent, will allow hereditary titles to be inherited by the eldest child of either sex.

William Sansom

  I went to Maida Vale with Nicky and Nick on Saturday to deliver flyers for Zac Goldsmith. Nicky’s father is the subject of Man in Taxi. As we worked the letter boxes of NW8, Nick told me that he had been brought up in Hamilton Terrace and about his father.

The Duke of Wellington

Last month Ian Alexander-Sinclair recalled MacBeth in Introducing a Special Guest. He returns to reflect on Richard Holmes’s 2003 biography, Wellington: The Iron Duke.

A Serious Musical

Le Boeuf sur le toit is a jazzy, tango composition by Darius Milhaud. I like it hugely and think the best translation is “Beef on the roof”.