Chelsea Quiz

The link between investment manager McInroy & Wood and one of the greatest letter writers of the 19th century may not be immediately obvious. There is also a tenuous link to the greatest diarist of the 20th century. This sounds like a question on the venerable (started in 1947) radio programme Round Britain Quiz.

Building Barons Court

London is being transformed by new blocks of flats and offices. Supply will outstrip demand, especially if we have a Brexit led recession. I have looked at some old Ordnance Survey maps to see how it changed towards the end of the 19th century.

A Special Bond

I hadn’t been to the Public Record Office in Kew since 1999 and dug out my Reader’s Ticket to make a return visit. Luckily I checked to see if anything had changed.

Published
Categorised as Family

The Master of the Rolls

If there is a consistent thread that binds the complex tapestry of English history it is inconsistency. Forty years ago we were agog to join Europe … now? But I want to look back to the 13th century.

Quiz Answers

When you open this website sometimes you must think “I don’t want this. This is just what I don’t want. What I want is Wodehouse and I want Wodehouse now.”

Quiz

Put on your thinking cap. Mark Mason has written Question Time – A Journey Round Britain’s Quizzes. I know this because he has an article about it in the October edition of The Oldie.

Gardening

Victoria Summerley (writer) and Hugo Rittson Thomas (photographer) had an original idea in 2015. They would write a coffee table book about gardens in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. The outcome was Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds and it was successful enough for them to venture a sequel this month.

Published
Categorised as Literature

Stefan Zweig

Yesterday I inadvertently omitted another novelist born in 1881. But perhaps it’s impossible to omit something inadvertently of which you are ignorant at the time? My host at lunch this week said that he has been an admirer of the Austrian writer, Stefan Zweig, for many years. I had never heard of him and had… Continue reading Stefan Zweig

Published
Categorised as Literature

Christmas Present

Imagine having a dinner party and inviting Mustafa Ataturk, Béla Bartók, Cecil B DeMille, Alexander Fleming, Anna Pavlova, Pablo Picasso and PG Wodehouse.