Month: April 2018

Globe-Trotter

Arriving at our hotel in Crete about a month ago, the manageress said that she’d show us our room and we could deal with the luggage later. “This is my luggage.” “You travel light.”

Mandarin

In the good old days, which actually weren’t that good, lots of French families lived around South Kensington because of the Lycée. As property prices rose they moved further west getting as far as Barons Court. Aspirational British parents enrolled their children alongside French families to make them bilingual, although it did the little darlings… Continue reading Mandarin

Published
Categorised as Local

The Wow! Factor

When a friend saw the kitchen Alan Higgs built for me she said Wow!  I was very pleased, as was Alan, by her reaction. On Thursday I visited a building that has the Wow! Factor.

Weekend Wodehouse

Last Saturday I read this letter in The Times, after a nudge from its author: Appropriately it is lying on my 1940 edition of Weekend Wodehouse with an introduction by Hilaire Belloc.

At The Circus

Bertram Mills, born in 1873, was brought up on a small farm in Chalfont St Giles. His father was an undertaker and used the farm as a place to rest his horses. As a teenager Bertram developed an equestrian affinity and was soon driving a four-in-hand between Oxford and London.

Published
Categorised as History

Richmond

Yesterday I was looking at the underside of the footbridge at Richmond Lock. It was past high water but the three barriers were raised and I was trying to see how they are concealed, they were invisible and there doesn’t seem to be room. Then it happened.

I Can Do That

The Washington Post has an article about new thrillers and what to drink with them – well I can do that.

Published
Categorised as Literature

A Noble Thing?

The National Trust evokes a range of emotions and the appointment of Helen McGrady as its new Director-General stirs up some new ones.

Chalfont St Giles

My outing to Gerrards Cross and Chalfont St Giles was on the hottest April day in London since 1949. Trains to GC go from Marylebone, an intimate station compared to other London termini.