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The Emperor has no clothes

It is perhaps a sign of our turbulent and unsettling times that my somewhat eventful weekend brought together events and ruminations that resulted in some uncomfortable conclusions and judgements. To be more specific, a what was later identified as a several-days’ old leak from a flat two floors [...]

September 30, 2019 // 0 Comments

The artist with the needle

This was the flattering but largely accurate description of my late father who as a doctor rose to prominence for vaccination. He inoculated the Royals, England’s football team, the Royal Opera company, symphony orchestras and Harold Macmillan whom he much admired. He found Macmillan to be a [...]

September 27, 2019 // 0 Comments

They should never come back

We all have our heroes. Back in the mists of time one of mine was Nigel Benn or “the Dark Destroyer”, the British sometime WBO middleweight champion and WBC super-middleweight champion who had a pro career record of 42 win (35 knockouts) in 48 fights. Those successful sports stars who prompt [...]

September 27, 2019 // 0 Comments

$50m art swindle/BBC 2

This documentary is the story of art dealer Michel Cohen who went from rags to riches and back to rags again. Born in impoverished circumstance in France after the war he came to the USA with a friend in the 80s. He bought a stack of lithographs and sold them. He realised that he had a talent to [...]

September 25, 2019 // 0 Comments

Another fading branch of the Establishment

The vexed issue of the future of public service broadcasting in the UK seems to be back on the agenda. Hard on the heels of, firstly, the findings of the BBC’s own internal complaints executive that Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis had been too ‘persistent and personal’ to the point of [...]

September 25, 2019 // 0 Comments

A LA COLTHARD/MARBELLA CLUB

The good friend a heavy hitter in the ad world who stayed with us at the Marbella Club referred to it as ‘reassuringly expensive’. This was a clever ad slogan applied to a premium lager to attract a rich clientele. As I understand it, it means that it is intended to be expensive as [...]

September 24, 2019 // 0 Comments

The wedding celebration

This three day celebration was my first experience of a millenial wedding. Most that I have attended in the past take place in a House of God with an officiating vicar or rabbi. This was in the open air in an elegant setting of the gardens of a villa with a lay celebrant. Various vows were made, [...]

September 23, 2019 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/Marbella Club Hotel

To Marbella with Bob Tickler for the wedding of one of his best friend’s sons. These overseas wedding celebrations are a millennial thing: those who put experiencing life at a premium and at a wedding celebration including travel abroad to a hot destination. After his budget airline experience [...]

September 21, 2019 // 0 Comments

Let the games commence!

One of the ironies of living long enough to reach one’s sixties is that the very fact tends to play havoc with both collective and personal memories, not least because inevitably the technology by which historical events were recorded define their brief moment in time. This might seem an obvious [...]

September 20, 2019 // 0 Comments

Morris Keston

I was saddened to learn recently of the passing of Morris Keston, Spurs fan supreme. He is mentioned in not all together flattering terms in one of the best books written on football The Glory Game by Hunter Davies, a fly-on-the-dressing-room-wall account of the Spurs’ season of 1971/2. He is [...]

September 20, 2019 // 0 Comments

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