Let Slip The Dogs of War

Henry V was written about 400 years ago. At its centre lies Agincourt, fought about 185 years earlier, as remote for Shakespeare and his audience as Waterloo is for us today.

You Rang, M’Lord?

Reading P G Wodehouse is a source of great pleasure to me but it has a serious angle. It, subliminally, provides education on titles and forms of address and he doesn’t put a foot wrong.

A Flash In The Park

Maddy, I hope you don’t mind if I recount a story you told me many years ago. You used to bicycle home from work through Hyde Park and receive the attentions of a flasher who would jump out from behind a tree and expose to you those bits of him in a southerly direction.

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Categorised as Art

K2+K6 Doesn’t Equal K9

I hadn’t visited the Sir John Soane’s Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields for about a decade. It has had some major work done in that period and now looks even more like it did on the day of Soane’s death in 1837.

Mappa Mundi

The Naval Museum in Madrid originates from a proposal my ancestor, Mendoza y Rios, made towards the end of the 18th century. It is only a biscuit’s throw (a favourite expression of my grandfather) from the Prado and is worth visiting for one exhibit alone.

Second Thoughts

How many times have you been told not to be fobbed off with second best? This is usually followed by being told that it’s worth paying a bit more for something that is higher quality. This is misguided advice.

Church Flowers

In the Church of England the period leading up to Advent, the fag-end of the interminable Trinities, is second only to Lent in popularity – if you are on the flower rota.

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Categorised as Family

Money In The Bank

Less than ten years ago it was a good bet to put your money in the bank. Not on deposit, stupid, but in owning the bank by being a shareholder. OK, there were a few that bit the dust – think Slater Walker, Barings and BCCI, none of which were proper banks, but the real… Continue reading Money In The Bank

A Pinch of Snuff

My late father-in-law favoured High Dry Toast. Norman Murphy, an authority on P G Wodehouse and much else besides, likes Kendal Brown. I have just ordered some Seville. From 1720 until 1981 they could all be purchased at Fribourg and Treyer’s shop in the Haymarket.