Name Dropping

I had lunch this week with Janet Suzman. I like to name-drop. We had M&S sandwiches – there were all my favourites – and I had a spot of the house white. The house in question was LAMDA of which she is a Vice President.

Published
Categorised as Theatre

Don’t Stick to Your Knitting

It can be good advice, in a business context, to “stick to your knitting”. Getting on with the business you know can make sense but it can be commercial suicide.

Yield to Temptation

My attempts to forecast the price of oil and Shell shares have been spectacularly unsuccessful. In the short term, total washouts, in the longer term maybe they will come right. So I decided not to try your patience any further, until I saw a configuration of stars in the financial firmament that I have not… Continue reading Yield to Temptation

Tom, Tom and Harry

Andrew Ritchie’s encounter with Princess Anne, related in a comment on Man in Taxi, leads me to speculate whether he met any other members of the Royal Family.

Number Sixteen

We like to think of the UK being, if not the cradle of democracy, the mother of parliaments. Looked at objectively, how true is this?

Published
Categorised as Politics

Man in Taxi

Man in taxi* was the sobriquet bestowed on an old friend by Wikipedia. He was mentioned  because of a curious incident that took  place on the evening of 24th March 1974.

Marmalade Matters

You have twenty-two days to submit your entry to the International Marmalade Awards, held annually at Dalemain in Cumbria. Marmalade is submitted from all over the world, so don’t be put off if you don’t live in the UK.

SS-GB

I meant to tell you about Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer, the current exhibition at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. It is a remarkably good show. I’m not writing about it because afterwards on my way to lunch. I took this picture on The Mall.