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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

The Reef / Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton the first female writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Age of Innocence is a novelist of whom I have heard but not read. The Reef was written by her in 1912. The story is of George Darrow , a 37 year old diplomat , travelling to see his fiancée the widow Anna Leath in France. She [...]

April 19, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Heath /Hunter Davies

The Heath is a vade mecum by writer and journalist Hunter Davies of a year in the life of Hampstead Heath (2019-2020). The author, born in Cumbria, has lived most of his life in Hampstead and is therefore well-qualified to give this well written, enthusiastic and informative account. He covers the [...]

April 19, 2023 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/Boccaccio and la Colombe d’Or

The past few days I have visited two of my favourite restaurants: Boccacio in the centre of Nice (rue Masséna) and la Colombe d’or in St. Paul de Vence, a 30 minute drive outside Nice. I walked straight past Boccacio because – as I remembered it – it never had an open air street [...]

April 14, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Night at the Opera/ Falstaff

Last night I went to see Guisepe Verdi’s final opera Falstaff at the Nice Opera House. He composed it aged 80 with the librettist Arrigo Borti. It’s based upon The Merry Wives of Windsor and the story can be simplified to the efforts of the debauched soldier Sir John Falstaff to seduce two [...]

April 7, 2023 // 0 Comments

La Chiave (1983)

This film was directed by the controversial Italian director Tinto Brass. His critics castigate him as a porn producer but I think that is unfair. The story is of an ageing art historian Professor Nino Rolfe, an ageing sensualist played by Frank Finlay, who entrusts his sexual fantasies over his [...]

April 3, 2023 // 0 Comments

DHL Stormers 32 Harlequins 28

The narrowness of the final score should not disguise the total supremacy of the Cape side in this Heineken Cup Tie. Quins scored 4 tries in the closing minutes which brought a semblance of respectability to the score line and a game Stormers dominated. There was something of a carnival atmosphere, [...]

April 2, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Bridge Too Far

I nicknamed this Richard Attenborough film An Hour Too Long as length is one of its problems. The other is the assemblage of stars – Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Lawrence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins, Liv Ullmann, Robert Redford, James Caan, Elliot Gould, Maximilian Schell, Hardy Kruger, Edward [...]

April 2, 2023 // 0 Comments

Manderley Forever/Tatiana de Rosnay

My immediate reaction upon reading Tatiana de Rosnay’s biography of Daphne du Maurier is do we need another one? Margaret Forster has written the definitive biography. Justine Picardie’s Daphne covers a critical period in her life when the latter was under time pressure to produce a biography [...]

March 29, 2023 // 0 Comments

Saracens 34 Harlequins 26

Yesterday I made the somewhat arduous journey to the Tottenham Stadium with 55,000 other spectators to see the match billed as a showdown between the two great London teams from North and West London. It hurts me to say it but Sarries were worthy winners in an entertaining contest in which Quins [...]

March 26, 2023 // 0 Comments

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