On Tuesday morning I was reading James Lees-Milne’s diaries. I have got as far as 1979 and he has formed an intense friendship with Michael Bloch. Later I went to lunch at the Savile and was delighted to meet him there.
Actually I was re-meeting him as we were dinner guests of Anne Seagrim, when he was writing a book about the Duke of Windsor, about a quarter of a century ago. Michael is J L-M’s literary executor and the volume that I am reading, Deep Romantic Chasm, is the first that he edited. The previous volume edited by J L-M’s great-nephew seems to have a few blunders. Snipe most definitely do not swoop and dip around the Kennet and Avon canal. I imagine J L-M wrote swifts. His footnotes are tedious – too much “Jimmy Carter, elected US President …” and then no notes on more obscure characters. It would have been useful to mention that “Mrs McCorquodale, a novelist of best sellers, an absurd woman, dressed to kill, covered in jewellery, with dozens of secretaries and living in a palace outside London” is better known as Barbara Cartland.
I forgot to tell Michael my only J L-M story. I asked an aristocratic Roquebrune neighbour about the Lees-Milnes. She, of course, had known them and commented “it was such a successful marriage, you see, Christopher, Jim preferred gentlemen and Alvide ladies”.
We talked of another 20th century diarist, Chips Channon, and speculated why a fuller edition of his diaries has not been published. Michael tends to the view that it is to avoid offending people still alive. I wonder if it’s simply because they are still in print and a new, expanded edition might not attract enough interest.
A great pleasure lunching at the Savile is eating outside on the terrace under an umbrella. We finished lunch with savouries and when my Welsh rarebit arrived I thought I was seeing double.
Lea & Perrins take eighteen months to mature their Worcestershire Sauce and have been at it since 1837. Henderson’s Relish is an 1885 Sheffield upstart. How do Henderson’s get away with marketing their Relish as an L&P lookalike? Now a Top Tip. Turn your Welsh rarebit over on its tummy and then the toast will absorb the Relish. It runs off the cheese side.
Heinz still can’t resist tinkering with the L & P label (I just wish they would leave it alone), altho’ I hope that that the abomination on the left is a one-off for their (larger) trade bottles?
I didn’t know about Hendersons. Looks splendid. We might do a taste comparison on the Greasy Spoon. Agreed- how on earth do they get away the copy-cat label? Back in the 80’s Victoria Wine had a hilarious range of ‘house’ spirits and wines- “Ole” (with an acute accent) was the sherry (Tio Pepe rip-off), “Glen Rossie” the whisky; “Dimitre” vodka (with Romanov eagle) and “Golden Oktober”- not a terrorist organisation, but a Blue Nun look-alike, brown bottle at al.