Articles by Robert Tickler

About Robert Tickler

A man of financial substance, Robert has a wide range of interests and opinions to match. More Posts

London parks

One of the joys of my new membership of the Reform Club situated at 104 Pall Mall is an early morning walk in nearby St James Park. No city I have ever visited matches central London for its 5 parks: Regents Park, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park and St James. If you took an overhead photo [...]

October 12, 2023 // 0 Comments

The rôle of fate

I have always believed that fate plays a supreme rôle in our lives, making life’s journey hazardous and impossible to predict. Battles, meetings and careers have all been undermined by the strangest happenstances. Let me give you an example from last Monday. I was walking to the bus stop when a [...]

August 18, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Very English Deceit/Malcolm Balen

This is an account of one of the biggest financial scandals in England’s history – The South Sea Bubble – and well told, briskly but informatively by Malcolm Balen. In brief when George I acceded to the the throne as the first Hanoverian at the start of the eighteenth century the [...]

August 4, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Reform Club

I have never been a great club man. I did join the Arts Club in Dover St some 50 years ago – and the RAC after that – but I was put off by the stuffiness and dress code and obsequiousness of the gentleman’s club. A few months ago I was invited to the Reform Club in Pall Mall and [...]

July 14, 2023 // 0 Comments

On mobiles

On Monday I had lunch with a very old friend now a King’s Counsel. Conversation turned to mobile phones on which we were in agreement. My friend had an old model of a mobile which he had no inclination to upgrade. I mentioned to him the the threat of scammers. No less than three attempts were [...]

June 14, 2023 // 0 Comments

Looking back…

I am of an age – 70 next March – when inevitably one tends to look more back than forward. I’m the early 1980s I worked for a South African company with an irritable, growling office manager nicknamed The General. He once quoted to me an Afrikaans’ saying after a particularly [...]

June 4, 2023 // 0 Comments

Thoughts on the Royal Coronation

Now that the hubbub has died down and we have an unnecessary and grey bank holiday, here are my random thoughts on the Royal Coronation. I’m no fan of King Charles III, considering him a poor thinker and privileged. Worst he thinks he has the right to impose and inflict his views on us. Thus I [...]

May 8, 2023 // 0 Comments

Medical matters

Yesterday I saw my private doctor in consultation. She belongs to a successor practice of a doctor who was as popular as he was competent. He had all the attributes one would wish: an excellent diagnostician, a fine judge of consultant, not too expensive and above all an optimist. Our 20 minute [...]

May 3, 2023 // 0 Comments

Cleaners of the world unite.

There is no doubt about it – there is a universal cleaners’ mentality. Here in this flat the partner of the concierge cleans once a week. Yesterday she did so. After she left, there was much we could not find as cleaners tend to put stuff away in places they know, but not the user. [...]

April 18, 2023 // 0 Comments

French railways assessed

Yesterday I made a short journey from Nice to Cannes on French railways known as SNCF. It was not a customer friendly experience. So much so that I found myself praising Southern Fail. I arrived at Nice station in good time and my intention was to buy a ticket over the counter as I believed I was [...]

April 17, 2023 // 0 Comments

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A cultural break in London

November 30, 2023 // 0 Comments

I have spent the last couple of days in cultural activities in London. On Tuesday I visited the opening of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in the Mall Gallery. Much of [...]
Watford Forever/John Preston

November 29, 2023 // 0 Comments

This is an illuminating account of the rise of Watford, focussing on Elton John and Graham Taylor. The relationship between the owner and manager is the key one in any club. [...]
Terry Venables

November 28, 2023 // 0 Comments

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Terry Venables . He was more than an acquaintance less than a friend. As in lifetime, opinion is divided on his merits and [...]
Frans Hals at the National Gallery

November 25, 2023 // 0 Comments

Yesterday I went to the National Gallery to see the Frans Hals exhibition – his first retrospective in 30 years- and enjoyed it immensely. You might think that [...]
Art of Film/Comedy/Sky Arts

November 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

Last night Ian Nathan presented the latest in the series on comedy. It’s obviously hard to cover this vast topic in an hour but nonetheless I was disappointed by the [...]