Month: March 2016

Onyx and Vanstone

Were this post to be about Lord Carrington it would be jolly long and, I like to think, of absorbing interest. In fact I’m going to read his memoir, Reflect on Things Past, published in 1988 by Collins. Soldier, politician, statesman does not do him justice. He is a patron of the arts – I… Continue reading Onyx and Vanstone

Published
Categorised as Sculpture

David Cameron is My Dentist

Do you have a phobia? I’m a bit scared of heights but so are many other people. Robert is terrified of spiders. A bit off-message but I had a dream a few nights ago in which the Prime Minister was X-raying my teeth. He impressed me by calling me Christopher, not Chris, he didn’t put on… Continue reading David Cameron is My Dentist

Published
Categorised as Psychology

A Matter of Trust

  I like companies where the interests of shareholders and management are aligned and touched on this in a recent post, Today’s Post is for Monty. Another slightly different example is The North Atlantic Smaller Companies Investment Trust, watched over by Harwood Capital and Christopher Mills.

Published
Categorised as Business

The Guards Chapel

On a Sunday morning in June 1944 the Guards Chapel was hit by a flying bomb during Matins. The whole building was destroyed, except the apse, and 121 people died.

Venetian Souvenirs

Poor, poor Venice; the footfall of overweight tourists is making it sink ever lower in the lagoon and the Adriatic is rising, not problems that will be solved here.

St Patrick in Soho

In London in the 18th century there was a concerted effort by rich Catholics and the Catholic Church to alleviate the poverty and misery of their less fortunate countrymen. The Benevolent Society of St Patrick (1783) and the older Irish Charitable Society (1704) are manifestations of this, (There’s a Welcome on the Mat), another is… Continue reading St Patrick in Soho

Anyone for Tennyson?

As far as I know there are no plans to tax poetry, if so it will hit me hard as anthologies will doubtless attract the top rate.

Norman Conquest

Whatever the UK electorate decides about staying in or leaving the EU, many of us in the British Isles feel a sense of identity with the Normans. Our genes, our language, our architecture, our laws can to a large extent be traced back to Norman roots.

Two Favourites

There is an annual cycle of events that’s peculiarly British. I’m thinking of the Birthday Parade (don’t call it Trooping the Colour), the Grand National, Wimbledon, the Chelsea Flower Show; events that the nation takes to its heart. One such tradition ceased in 2010.

Published
Categorised as Literature