Month: November 2016

St Yeghichè and St Cyprian

In a dictatorship when said dictator wants to impose his will he issues a Presidential Decree and at a stroke the dictator’s whim is law.   In the UK there are democratic elections and two chambers in parliament to debate and scrutinise legislation. That is unless something is too trivial to detain our politicians, such… Continue reading St Yeghichè and St Cyprian

Down Your Way

I am going to play you something by Yorkshire-born composer, Haydn Wood. If you are my age it may sound familiar.

An Ambassador in the Family

Nigel Farage has, it seems, struck up a rapport with President-elect Trump; an unlikely friendship as Trump doesn’t drink. Might Farage be a suitable UK ambassador to the United States?

On The Street

The scaffolding is finally being removed from the LAMDA theatre fly tower. It’s no beauty. It reminds me of a giant water tank.

The Wall That Donald Built

This is where I put my friend Edward (Ned) York after his mis-reading of the likely outcome of the American Presidential election. Anyway, I have relented and let him out this morning with another rather interesting guest-blog.

Remembrance Sunday

This is the interior of Les Invalides chapel in Paris. Funny to call it a chapel when it is such a monumental edifice. Louis XIV started building Les Invalides in 1670 as a retirement home and hospital for his old soldiers.

Hooray for Mateus Rosé

An army friend told me that he had arranged a reunion dinner for his intake at Sandhurst. To make it more interesting he got copies of their Sandhurst reports and put them at their places. They all opened them, most laughed and shared the contents with their neighbours but some hastily put them away. These… Continue reading Hooray for Mateus Rosé

Lord Mayor’s Show

It rained yesterday morning in London. Derek, who came to clean the windows, got drenched. Last time he came we worried about Brexit and this time about Trump.

Published
Categorised as History

Remembrance Day

I don’t have a Remembrance Day routine. Last year I went to the SOE memorial to Violette Szabo on the Thames (Alms for Oblivion). This year I went to Hammersmith post office to collect a parcel.

Published
Categorised as History

A Drop of Irish

Marigold Armitage is perched on the top shelf of my fiction section between Martin Amis and Daisy Ashford. If you don’t know her books you will certainly be aware of her genre.

Published
Categorised as Literature