The Reason Why

Why did Roy Jenkins decide on another major biography in his old age. (It was published when he was eighty-two, the year before he died.) John Campbell explains.

Welsh Rabbit

Churchill was appointed Home Secretary in 1910. Aged thirty-five he was the youngest since Robert Peel.

A Night at the Opera

“The book which the reader has before him at this moment is, from one end to the other, in its entirety and details … a progress from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from corruption to life; from bestiality to duty, from… Continue reading A Night at the Opera

En Passant

You may pop into a church, if it’s not locked, to say a little prayer. I go in to look at architecture and monuments; always to a greater or lesser extent rewarding and I can say a little prayer when I get home.

Tarsila

Paris in the 1920s was a crucible in the heat of which Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism were forged by artists like André Lhote, Fernand Léger, and Albert Gleizes. There was a woman in another country and another continent who wanted to learn about these new styles.

Lamentation

Feeling a little under the weather I have postponed reading Sonia Purnell’s biography of Clementine Churchill and turned to lighter fare more suited to my mood.

Limping Lady

C.C.’s comment “what about Carrie?” made me think but maybe one day she will be worth a biography although she is more likely to make a pre-emptive strike by writing a memoir about the red wine stains on her upholstery.

It Begins with C

I would only quite like to read Cherie Blair’s 2008 memoir but I haven’t. I wait for a biography of a Prime Minister’s wife (beginning with C) and then two come along.

Budget Blues

After the recent Budget farmers on tractors drove to Downing Street to protest. Where were pensioners on Zimmer frames?

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How Peculiar

More than five years ago Bertie and I went to The Charterhouse. B was impossible on the tube, wriggling and squirming, and not very well behaved in the grounds of the C. He was a puppy.