Notes on…
The misery of black tie
Men don’t look good in black tie. They might think that they look like Sean Connery in Dr No, but…
Gatton Park
Gatton Park is probably Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s least famous landscape. It is tucked away near Reigate Hill, just beyond the…
Gatton Park
Gatton Park is probably Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s least famous landscape. It is tucked away near Reigate Hill, just beyond the…
Royal Ascot
It’s time to scuttle under a rock if you are a Folkestone or Cornish crab: 7,000 of them will be…
Brodie Castle
Is there a more forlornly romantic spot in Britain than the moors east of Inverness where the Jacobite dream died?…
Brodie Castle
Is there a more forlornly romantic spot in Britain than the moors east of Inverness where the Jacobite dream died?…
The Romantic poets
People can be mightily protective of their Romantic poets. When I worked at the Keats Shelley House, overlooking the Spanish…
The Romantic poets
People can be mightily protective of their Romantic poets. When I worked at the Keats Shelley House, overlooking the Spanish…
Verdi
Verdi has a peculiar if not unique place in the pantheon of great composers. If you love classical music at…
Verdi
Verdi has a peculiar if not unique place in the pantheon of great composers. If you love classical music at…
Bullfighting
Looking at the programme for the feria of San Isidro in Madrid this month (bullfights are being held on 31…
Bullfighting
Looking at the programme for the feria of San Isidro in Madrid this month (bullfights are being held on 31…
Clumber spaniels
For the first time in more than 30 years we have no Clumber spaniel. We have had five: Henry, Judith,…
Indoor gardening
A year or so ago, I inherited a cardboard box filled with plants. It was an offshoot from an enormous…
Indoor gardening
A year or so ago, I inherited a cardboard box filled with plants. It was an offshoot from an enormous…
The delights of Hieronymus Bosch
If you hope to inspire an appreciation of Renaissance art in your children, look to Hieronymus Bosch. Ideally, your children…
The delights of Hieronymus Bosch
If you hope to inspire an appreciation of Renaissance art in your children, look to Hieronymus Bosch. Ideally, your children…
Tarot reading
It’s 8.57 on a Friday evening and I’m at home, waiting for an obscure American radio talk show to come…
Tarot reading
It’s 8.57 on a Friday evening and I’m at home, waiting for an obscure American radio talk show to come…
Downtown Los Angeles
There’s a certain kind of Englishman who falls hard for Los Angeles. Men such as Graham Nash, who swapped the…
Downtown Los Angeles
There’s a certain kind of Englishman who falls hard for Los Angeles. Men such as Graham Nash, who swapped the…
Florence
Once, it seems, Sandro Botticelli played a trick on a neighbour. Next door was a weaver who possessed eight looms.…
Florence
Once, it seems, Sandro Botticelli played a trick on a neighbour. Next door was a weaver who possessed eight looms.…
St Petersburg
Looking across the wide Neva from Vasilyevsky Island, the Palace Embankment shimmers in the river, suspended between water and sky.…
St Petersburg
Looking across the wide Neva from Vasilyevsky Island, the Palace Embankment shimmers in the river, suspended between water and sky.…
