Old Wykehamist Reception at Lincoln's Inn

The Old Wykehamist Sports Reception was held in the Old Hall, Lincoln's Inn on 13th May 2010. The Warden, David Clementi, introduced the presentation of Winchester's sporting achievement by the likes of Douglas Jardine, the Nawab of Pataudi(who managed to play test cricket with only one eye), Hubert Doggart (who was a Cambridge Blue in five different sports and captain in four) and Howard Angus by David Fellowes, the Director of the Winchester College Society. About 100 people attended and all were amazed at the depth of talent that was exhibited, most of which proved the old truth that a healthy mind produces a healthy body, in that the sporting 'greats' were mostly also highly gifted academically as well.

Tate Modern's 10th Anniversary

Part of the Tate Modern's attraction is the approach to it from St Paul's over the Millennium Bridge


A favourite Bacon triptych. Click the heading for a selection of other works.

I was interviewed about the Tate Modern by the BBC. Fortunately I didn't see the news programme on which it was shown, but I've had people contact me from as far as Australia to say that they saw it!

Henri Matisse

Matisse - The Red Studio at the Museum of Modern Art

A superb series on the modern artists by Alastair Sooke opens one's eyes to Matisse's originality. His work has influenced artists such as Rothko and many designers including Tricia Guild and Paul Smith. See some of Matisse's paintings in the Musee Matisse by clicking the heading, although much of his best work is in the Hermitage, as well as in New York and Paris.

A Child From Everywhere

On 6th May 2010 Caroline Irby held an exhibition at the V&A Bethnal Green (The Museum of Childhood) of her 'A Child From Everywhere' project in which she photographed children from 185 different countries currently living in the UK.

Also at the exhibition was Alanna Clear, who's own project (with her husband) travelling 20,000 miles by motorcycle and sidecar from Alaska to the tip of Patagonia and interviewing people on the way about the secrets of long-lasting love looks to be even more interesting. It's called 'Going the Distance' and will be edited and published later this year.

The Lord Mayor's Lunch

The Lord Mayor, Nick Anstee, held a lunch at the Guildhall in aid of the Army Benevolent Fund, supported by Prince Charles. It was very well attended and the money raised by the silent auction and raffle exceeded £100,000. Click the heading for some more photos.

Farewell Robert Le Pirate

Charles Viale, dit Robert le Pirate, vient de mourir à 88 ans. Et avec lui, c'est la plus belle époque de la vie nocturne azuréenne qui disparaît

C'était sans doute le dernier des Mohicans, quoique plus flibustier qu'indien. Les soirées dans son restaurant du Cap-Martin ont fait le régal des journaux people du monde entier. À une époque où people voulait encore dire quelque chose.

Sa réputation est d'ailleurs venue d'outre-Atlantique où Franck Sinatra, alors au sommet de son art, ne jurait que par lui. Dans les années soixante, Onassis y amenait la Callas, Alain Delon y dînait tous les soirs avec Jane Fonda lorsqu'ils tournaient « Le Félin », BB y a peut-être dit « oui » à Gunter Sachs. Le Prince Rainier s'y rendait accompagné de Grace Kelly.

De ce haut lieu de la nuit, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Grégory Peck, Nat King Cole, Gina Lollobrigida, Kirk Douglas, le « Johnny » national, Bébel, Claude François, Tino Rossi, Serge Gainsbourg, Catherine Deneuve, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Brel, le roi Hussein de Jordanie, le prince Charles, Jacques Chirac, Dario Moreno, et Ursula Andress, pour ne citer qu'eux, gardent tous, pour ceux qui sont encore en vie, des souvenirs souvent impérissables... mais pas toujours avouables. Seuls quelques happy few ont pu parfois assister à ces soirées d'anthologie.

Mais pourquoi autant de stars ont-elles hanté les nuits du Cap-Martin ? Tout simplement parce que le pirate était un hôte inimitable. Le mélange de son style fantasque et de l'insouciance de ces années dorées a permis aux quelques mètres carrés de son restaurant de devenir le lieu le plus branché de la Côte. Il fallait réserver des mois à l'avance pour avoir la chance de s'asseoir à la table de Robert le pirate.

Lui était toujours torse nu. Tirait en l'air en plein restaurant. Tant et si bien que les seaux accrochés au plafond quand il pleuvait faisaient partie intégrante du décor.

Inimitable

La musique, toujours, accompagnait les frasques du pirate qui n'hésitait pas à jeter de l'huile sur le feu de son immense barbecue avant d'embrocher de son sabre la viande à cuire. Un véritable show man. Au Pirate, on cassait les assiettes, les ânes s'invitaient à la table en fin de soirée et l'on apportait avec la petite barque son café à Dino De Laurentis qui « garait » son Riva devant le restaurant.

Et que dire de cette scène restée gravée dans la mémoire d'un serveur : « Le Saint en personne est entré. Tout le monde s'est tu devant tant d'allure. Et avec son accent très british, Roger Moore, a demandé de la « leng oust ». Le pirate a mis son couteau entre les dents et a plongé pour remonter le crustacé. Bien sûr, il avait un vivier au fond de l'eau ».

Roger Moore était bien d'ailleurs l'un des seuls à pouvoir commander. Parce que chez le Pirate, c'était le Pirate en personne qui vous disait ce que vous mangiez au gré de ses humeurs.

Ses humeurs définissaient aussi le prix à payer pour ces folles soirées. Le Pirate se transformait souvent en Robin des bois. Et il n'était pas rare de voir un riche industriel italien payer sans le savoir pour des Roquebrunois désargentés attablés quelques mètres plus loin.

Des Roquebrunois et des Mentonnais pour qui Robert le pirate était une véritable légende. Pour cette génération, approchant désormais la soixantaine, le restaurant du Pirate, c'était aussi un muret où les gamins s'entassaient pour apercevoir les superbes filles qui arrivaient très apprêtées dans de grosses voitures américaines et repartaient... soutenues par les serveurs, incapables de tenir debout. Le champagne, du Don Pérignon évidemment, coulait à flot chez Robert. Lui-même avait d'ailleurs la réputation de commencer sa journée, vers 11 heures, en avalant une flûte avec un peu de cassis. Avant de prendre un bain dans sa chère Méditerranée, comme tous les jours de l'année.

Mais ce que tous ces gamins attendaient, c'était surtout les Strangers in the night.

Le moment où les lumières s'éteignaient. Quand les lanternes s'allumaient et que la chanson de Sinatra débutait. Le Pirate prenait alors la tête de son équipage de stars et traversait la rue pour aller aux « Frères de la Côte », sa boîte de nuit. Les « Strangers in the night » ont disparu désormais. La Côte est devenue plus sérieuse. Peut-être plus triste. Surtout depuis que son pirate de la nuit s'en est allé...

opoisson@nicematin.fr
From Nice-Matin March 2010

The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry

The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in the centre of Coventry, next to the Cathedral, held two most successful events on 31st March and 1st April, growing their visitor total well past 500,000 since reopening in the autumn 2008 after a major refurbishment and has just received the 2010  Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award. In addition, this year The Herbert is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first opening in 1960.

The Herbert's The History of the World in 100 Objects exhibited a number of significant pieces related to Warwickshire. The event was introduced by Annie Othen of BBC Coventry, a representative from the British Museum and Ludo Keston, The Herbert's chief executive

JK Starley's Safety Bicycle

Fascinating local objects included a 500,000 year old hand axe, the JK Starley Safety Bicycle (from which all modern bicycles derive), Shakespeare's signet ring, Frank Whittle's 1943 jet engine, William Lyons's E-Type Jaguar and one of the earliest rugby balls.

The Coventry Open Arts Competition held on 1st April included a number of fine pieces, the overall winner being Marinos Thoma. Some photos of the event and exhibits can be seen here.

The Herbert has also relaunched its Friends scheme, with Margaret Rylatt as President and Peter Walters as chairman.

The Lucky Parrot

Ginny at the Luck Parrot in 2005.


Ginny Moore, the owner of the Lucky Parrot on Bellevue Road, bordering Wandsworth Common, has died after a long illness. Ginny made her shop a treasure trove for children and their parents for 30 years.

A memorial service was held for her at St Mary Magdalene Church, Trinity Road on 9th April 2010. Click the heading for some photos of The Lucky Parrot and the crowd at her memorial service and here for video of a choir singing 'Once In Royal David's City' outside in the winter of 2006.

Thoughts on Facebook and Skype

Click the heading for some discussion about Facebook and the internet generally. Contrary to what many people still think, it’s not a ‘zero-sum’ game, but instead adds exponentially to the ease with which we can interact with each other.

I was at lunch with a much older friend the other day and he asked me about Facebook. Needless to say, he didn't like the idea at all; few people of even of my age are comfortable with it but I tried to explain it to him as being like a series of postcards that you exchange with your friends – and only your friends – the additional factor being that most of your friends can see the postcards and comment on them if they wish. He still didn't like it. Oh well; despite that fact that I do still send a lot of real-lfe postcards, I wonder if he'll be proved right and I'll be seen as a shallow fellow, over-ready to adopt modern systems of self-gratification. One of my friends  Skypes me a lot and I find that takes too much of my time. I would prefer short messages on FB and longer conversations on the telephone. Unlike the phone, one is a little self-conscious on Skype (particularly as others can hear both sides of the conversation) and one can also be distracted by the keyboard and screen and liable to start footling around on the internet rather than concentrating on the conversation. On the other hand, self-consciousness diminishes on FB and one finds one's voice - mocking, ironic, literary or whatever - so that others become comfortable with your particular output and you theirs. 


I still think that FB adds a considerable amount to the sum of human happiness and detracts but a little.

Fine Cell at the V&A

The Fine Cell Event at the V&A. Click the heading for more photos and a video.

On 25th March Fine Cell held a sale and auction at the V&A which was enormously well attended. A quilt made by prisoners at HMP Wandsworth, bearing the embroidored signatures of various well-known people, was sold for £5500. The event was supported by Sir Mark Jones, the Director of the V&A and Lord Ramsbotham.

Other Fine Cell Events
Drapers Hall 2008
Leathersellers Hall 2009

The Gherkin

The view from the top floor of the Gherkin towards the Tower, Tower Bridge and the Armadillo (the Mayor's building). The huge building on this side of the river is the insurance broker Marsh.
The Gherkin - otherwise known as the Swiss Re building or 30 St Mary Axe, stands where my office used to be before the IRA blew up the Baltic Exchange with a bomb in 1992 (in the mistaken belief that it was the Stock Exchange). The bomb caused £800 million worth of damage, £200 million more than the total damage caused by the 10,000 explosions that had occurred during the Troubles in Northern Ireland up to that point. Thomas Miller had already moved some years before, but it was still a salutary experience as we hadn't moved very far, and when we were finally allowed back in I found broken glass on the chair in my office in Holland House.


Baltic Exchange Chambers - 14-20 St Mary Axe - in 1980

United Guilds' Service 2010

The City Livery Companies - the Guilds - hold their annual service at St Paul's.

The history of the service is recorded on the service sheet thus:

'At a meeting of the Masters and Prime Wardens of the Twelve Great Companies, held at Goldsmiths' hall on February 1st 1943, it was decided to hold a service in St Paul's Cathedral for the Livery Companies and Guilds of the City of London. The idea behind the service was to help lift the spirits of the City following the Blitz during the Second World War.

Having regard to the religious origins of the Companies, Thursday 25th March, 1943, Lady Day, was selected as the date for the service, being the first day of the year according to the Julian Calendar. The Right Honourable the Lodr Mayor of London, Sir Samuel Joseph, attended along with the Sherrifs and Court Aldermen and the Right Reverend The Lord Bishop of London, Dr GF Fisher, preached the sermon.

As far as records show, this was the first occasion on which all the livery Companies and Guilds of the City combined to hold a religious service. Since then, it has become an annual event and remains one of the few occasions in the calendar at which the Livery Companies and Guilds of the City can gather together as a whole.'

On this occasion, the Dean, the Right Reverend Graeme Knowles gave the Bidding, and the sermon was preached by the Right Reverend Graham James, Bishop of Norwich. The Bishop of London gave the Blessing.

I was lucky enough to attend with some fellow liverymen of the Drapers Livery Company.

Favourite Places - Nice

Handy Man's Workshop Tool Definitions

I am not usually given to posting witty definitions, but these are too good to miss.

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal pieces out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted project part you are working on.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say, "Ouch...."

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for setting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub you want the bearing race out of.

WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 socket you've been searching for the last 15 minutes.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new disk brake pads, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off a hydraulic jack handle.

TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.

PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbors to see if he has an other hydraulic floor jack.

SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog poo off your boot.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps off in bolt holes you couldn't use anyway.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the tensile strength on everything you forgot to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large prybar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

TROUBLE LIGHT: The home mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, it's main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last over tightened 58 years ago by someone at Vickers, and neatly rounds off their heads.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses too short for their intended purpose.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as new racing seat pads, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund cheques, and rubber or plastic parts.

DAMMIT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling "DAMMIT" at the top of your lungs.

It is also the next tool that you will need.

Taken from Sam Ignarski's Newsletter Bow Wave

The Agony of Shipping Casualties

Selendang Ayu. Click for large

A photo of the Selendang Ayu, a bulk carrier which suffered an engine failure and grounded off the Aleutian Islands in December 2004. Photo by the USCG who rescued all but seven of the crew.

Despite being involved with shipping all my working life, I am surprised to realise that apart from a couple of early entries, there is almost nothing on this Journal about shipping or the shipping casualties which took up a good proportion of my days. I spoke a bit about it in my retirement speeches in London and Japan but may now add some more examples.

More Wise Advice

More wise advice from Sally Brampton who writes in the Sunday Times. I put an earlier piece of her advice on this Journal here There is also a sample of Eric Berne's marvellous book 'Games People Play' - which Sally recommends as well.

All you need is love, right?
Wrong! It takes a whole lot more to make a relationship work

If there is one area in our lives where most of us struggle, it’s relationships. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they can be improved. It takes hard work, but anybody who says, “If you have to work at it, it’s not worth it”, is probably in denial or an unreconstructed romantic in search of Miss or Mr Right — who, guess what, they never succeed in finding.

With two failed marriages behind me (I’m now, happily, on my third), I take an intense personal interest. We learn how to have relationships from our parents, and some of us are taught rather better than others. My early lessons were not good and, eventually, I was in such despair that I took myself off to therapy to learn how to undo some of my more destructive habits and responses. I am still learning and I still get things wrong (old habits die hard), but one thing I do know is that negative behaviours aren’t written in stone.

Recently, I was having dinner with a girlfriend who has the best marriage I’ve ever seen. She and her husband like each other and laugh a lot, but it can’t simply be put down to good luck, right man, right woman. Perhaps that’s why I study them with more than forensic interest. At dinner, she was telling a story about her mother: “I was so angry when I put down the phone, I had to call a friend and unload before he came home so I didn’t dump it all over him.”

Unloading high emotion or anger before my husband walks through the door had simply never occurred to me (as I say, a rubbish early education), so it struck like an epiphany that it’s not so much what those friends do, as what they don’t, that makes their marriage work. Call it reverse psychology. It’s all very well to be told to be gentler, kinder or more tolerant, but such well-intentioned instructions are so wildly abstract that they are close to meaningless. Understanding what we shouldn’t do, rather than what we should, might provide a better and more useful insight. In that spirit, I made my own list of 10 relationship no-no’s.

1 Don’t blame somebody else for the way that we feel

We have to take responsibility for our own emotions, rather than handing them over to our intimate other. And we should not confuse their emotions with our own. Say our other half comes home and yells at us about something inconsequential because they’re stressed at work. Our first response is to take it personally and feel aggrieved. Better to take a step back and look at what’s really bothering them. A little empathy, a simple question — “Are you okay?” — can defuse a potential row in a way that hostility met by hostility never can.

2 Don’t to try to change the other person

In trying to change someone, we’re playing the “if only” game, as in, “if only you were tidier/more sociable/less complaining/more generous, our relationship would be fabulous”. We cannot change other people. All we can change is our own responses and behaviour. That doesn’t make us total wimps, nor does it mean we can’t ask for what we want or need. We can, but as adults, not as children. Adults explain, children complain, which takes us straight to rule No 3.

3 Don’t use the word ‘you’, replace it with the word ‘I’

Take charge of your own feelings, as in, “I feel this when you do that”, rather than, “You did this and made me feel that way”. Say your husband (or wife; bad behaviour is gender-free) never helps out around the house. We can explain that we’d like it if they helped more, or we can complain that they never help, which takes us to rule No 4.

4 Ban the words ‘never’ and ‘always’

They are almost always accusatory, as in, “you never empty the dishwasher” or “you always forget my birthday”. Add a jabbing finger and you have almost definitely moved into blame territory. Along with blame comes criticism and its bitchy close relation, contempt — both are poisonous to a relationship. If there are sticking points that can’t seem to get resolved, appeal to somebody’s good nature — “I wish you’d remember my birthday, it really upsets me when you don’t” is far more likely to result in ribbons and roses than snide comments about selective memory, just as contemptuous remarks about how remarkable it is that dishwashers load themselves are far more likely to mean you end up with a sink full of dirty plates.

5 Don’t be defensive

It’s simply another form of blame, as in “it’s not my fault” (it’s yours). Trying to see another person’s point of view is not stepping down, it’s stepping forward. It is not a sign of weakness but of strength. It takes generosity to put ourselves in another’s shoes, and if relationships thrive on any single gesture, it is to take our personal feelings out of the situation and show generosity.

6 Don’t sulk or stonewall

Men are particularly good at this; usually on the pretext they are “just keeping their head down”. Silence can be a form of punishment (as hostile in its own way as noisy anger) and refusing to engage makes conciliation impossible.

7 Don’t keep a battle going

Learn to accept an apology as well as to apologise, not necessarily for the action (sometimes we are right to be angry), but for the situation: “I’m sorry we had such a silly quarrel”.

8 Don’t make assumptions about other people’s behaviour

How can we learn not to do this? By stopping and asking ourselves a few simple questions: “How do I know if that’s really true? Am I overdramatising this?” We might, for example, assume somebody is late because they don’t care, whereas the truth is that they can be late for any number of reasons that have nothing to do with us. Other forms of mind-reading include expecting other people to fulfil our wants and needs without stating them clearly (“he/she should know”) and are based on yet another assumption: “If he/she loved me, he/she would know.” Nobody, however intimate, is clairvoyant.

9 Don’t be controlling

Your other half might be rubbish at cooking, but constant interference is not going to make them any better. People are imperfect, even the ones we love, and control is a form of game-playing. If you set somebody up, they will almost always fail. One game couples like to play is withholding affection or sex, but the real casualty, often fatally wounded, is the relationship, as both people draw further apart. Another form of game-playing is victim. “I was only trying to help” is a subtle, manipulative form of control.

10 Have good manners

Not in the sense of frigid politeness (which can be as riddled with contempt as outright insults), but as in treating your other half as you would your closest friends: with respect, affection and tolerance. If there’s one thing that has always struck me about those friends with a good marriage, it is that they are unfailingly considerate of each other. If you can do all that, you’re a better creature than I am, but what I can truly say is that I try. Where there’s a will or, to paraphrase, a willingness, there’s almost always a way.

Sally Brampton in the Sunday Times

Helpful reading: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman and Nan Silver (Orion £8.99). Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships by Eric Berne (Penguin £8.99)

Favourite Places - St Ronan's

Usually, when one returns to a place one knew as a child, it seems smaller. Not so the huge old house and great cedar in the drive at my prep school, St Ronan's. Click the heading for some more photos from the visit, including some of the soon to be completed sports hall for which the school raised nearly £100,000 more than its target, showing how well-regarded it still is.

The Joy of YouTube

Pablo Casals playing The Song of the Birds at the UN

YouTube is a phenomenon that has no equal. On its vast databases are all the music of one's youth, performances or interviews with people who were heroes to one's parents, glorious songs from different countries, business interviews, virtuoso performances of every classic piece that one might long to hear, instructional videos of every description and of course film clips (and sometime complete films).

This wonderful facility is completely free to the user (thanks to Google) and is even available hand-held on the iPhone. This is truly one of the wonders of the modern age.

Lord Mayor's Dinner at the Guildhall

The Lord Mayor, Nick Anstee, gave a dinner for the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma at the Guildhall on 4th March 2010. It was the usual ceremonial affair, beautifully done. The Gloucesters added some royal flavour and Mandleson was the principal government representative. Little of substance was said in the speeches, though Zuma did lay unusual stress on the point that nationalisation of the mines was not the government's policy.....Click the heading for some photos

The Joy of Podcasts

Initially put off by the rather techie name for TV and radio recordings in a digital format that can be played on a computer or mobile phone, I have been slow to take to podcasts, but now understand their appeal. Inevitably, it's taken the iPhone and the connections that make it play through a car's speakers to effect this change. I can now listen to the Economist (which has a 'voice' version) and superb programmes like Melvyn Bragg's 'In Our Time' using the fairly unprofitable time while driving to catch up - or learn for the first time - about fascinating subjects like the dispute between Newton and Leibnitz over which of them 'invented' calculus. More recently, I have been hooked by 'A History of the World in 100 Objects' and David Reynold's 'America: Empire of Liberty'.

The New York Times commented on Radio 4's podcasts this week, writing:

“In Our Time,” a program on “the history of ideas,” is in a class of its own. Each week the host, Melvyn Bragg — a BBC veteran, whose life peerage makes him Lord Bragg of Wigton — offers a panel of academic experts, with Oxford and Cambridge heavily represented. The guests have titles like “associate professor in philosophy and senior fellow in the public understanding of philosophy at the University of Warwick.” They talk about arcane topics from history, literature, science and philosophy, throwing off casual asides on subjects like Sigmund Freud’s theory of “gain through illness” — the idea that people become neurotic because it is useful to them.

Mr. Bragg doesn’t spare the stage directions: Would you please tell us about this? And We’ll Get to That Later. But his careful questioning and quick wit underlie the brilliance of “In Our Time” — its ability to draw in listeners on subjects that they would not expect themselves to care much about, or perhaps even to be able to tolerate.

I convinced a friend to start downloading the program when I mentioned an interesting discussion of logical positivism. The next time I saw her, she told me that she was hooked and that a new episode on the Siege of Munster — which had popped up on my iPhone, but which I had not rushed to hear — was surprisingly fascinating.

Intellectuals also talk about ideas on a second BBC Radio 4 program called “Thinking Allowed,” but its focus is “new research on how society works.” The host, Laurie Taylor, interviews professors and authors on subjects that are contemporary and often a bit whimsical. There have been episodes on acquaintances — people somewhere between strangers and friends — and a phenomenon described as “laddish masculinity in higher education.”

The discussions often involve scholarly inquiry into the minutiae of everyday life, with special attention to the role of social class — a subject rarely discussed in the American news media. On one, an inquiry into the sociology of car behavior suggested that when two middle-class couples ride in a car, the owners of the car are likely to sit in the front, with the second couple in the back. When two working-class couples go for a drive, the men are likely to sit in the front and the women in the back.

Making abstruse subjects accessible to nonexperts can be a challenge, something Mr. Bragg, a self-proclaimed nonexpert, appreciates. “Thank you very much, indeed, for bringing that down to us,” he told the panel at the end of the show on logical positivism.

After a brief pause, he announced the following week’s topic: “The Ediacara Biota, pre-Cambrian life forms, which vanished 542 million years ago — were they the earliest form of life?”

Click the heading for a link to the Radio 4 podcasts.

Saatchi Gallery - New Art From India

The Saatchi Gallery has again put on a fascinating exhibition of new art - this time from India. Click the heading for some examples.

Click here for the earlier exhibitions:

New Art from the Middle East
New Art from China

Favourite Places - Whitefield

The road though Whitefield, north of Bangalore, India. Click the photo to get a proper sense of this timeless scene

Sadly, since this photo was taken, some time in 2007, there has been a huge road building project through Whitefield and most of these great trees have gone.

Sucker for Sunsets

The sunset gives an ordinary school building in a neighbouring street a starship quality

Number 22 Jermyn St

A dear friend, Henry Togna had a hotel in Jermyn St - Number 22 - as did his parents before him. It sadly closed in October 2009 as its long lease (from the Crown Estates) was up and the building (known as Eyrie Mansion) was to be rebuilt.

Number 22 was particularly favoured by Americans who returned to it year by year, loving its old-fashioned charm and more recently under Henry, its carefully refurbished comforts. One of those was Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who has written a most beautiful piece in praise of the hotel and the streets of London around it. You can read it by clicking the heading. And if you have time, don't miss some of the many comments below the article, added by other American visitors to London who clearly hold it as dear as he does, sometimes in as fine a prose as his.

The Joy of Breakfast

On these still dark winter mornings, breakfast is a singular pleasure, particularly when taken in the warm kitchen full of the smell of toast and coffee. It is a still greater pleasure when the weather allows it to be taken in the garden under the apple tree. And when travelling, though I subscribe to the view that 'breakfast should not consist of things bizarre', foreign breakfasts can also be a joy. Click the heading for some more photos.

Breakfast on the terrace of the Hotel Eden, Rome

Lying to Your Boss 2010

Click for large

Royal Hospital Chelsea Dinner 2010

A dinner at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea given by the Governor, General Lord Walker and Sir Michael Craig-Cooper, chairman of the Friends. Brigadier Edward Butler (grandson of 'Rab' Butler), gave a talk on Afghanistan, where he had commended 22 SAS and 16 Air Assault Brigade. Click the heading for some photos and videos from the evening.

See also
The Royal Hospital Carol Service 2009
The Margaret Thatcher Infirmary
The Royal Hospital, Chelsea

Shizue Futatsumori

Shizue Futatsumori, mother to Ayako and her six siblings, died in Aomori on 28th January 2010. She was the respected wife of a school headmaster, Juro Futatsumori, who died in 1984.

The Van Gogh Exhibition

Lucky enough to get early to the Van Gogh Exhibition at the Royal Academy. A very fine collection, accompanied by detailed interpretations of his work drawn from his letters - made the more fascinating by the brief trajectory of his life. Click the heading to see more paintings and drawings from the exhibition, taken necessarily surreptitiously.

Watching Friends from Afar

Not going skiing, but can at least see where some friends are and follow them by webcam

Britain in Winter

Wintery weather covers Britain. Click the photo for a more dramatic view. In the Deep Midwinter seems the most appropriate carol.

We seem to have forgotten that it was it was almost as snowy last year. Click here for a reminder and the Flanders and Swan song of the weather

Two Controversial Books

I have been reading two controversial books recently - Professor Ian Plimer's Heaven and Earth, which questions the science behind climate change, specifically charging that man-made CO2 emissions are not responsible for the present increase in CO2 in the atmosphere - it mainly comes from 'natural' causes - and that there have been periods of global warming in the past that clearly have nothing to do with CO2 derived from man's use of fossil fuels. That view seems now to be relegated the wild fringe but The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand, another professor, this time of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University, argues that much of ancient Jewish history is a myth, including the exile, fostered in the name of nationalism, and in fact there is no such thing as the Jewish race, only a Jewish religion and tradition.

The world's scientists seem all to think that global warming is largely man0-made, and at the very least we must accept that we have to move past our rapacious use of the earth's non-renewable energy resources whatever climate change may be going on. So far as ancient Jewish history is concerned, to the extent that those myths are responsible for the present intransigence of Israel in the matter of sharing land with the Palestinians (who, on Sand's reading, are of the same blood and much the same ancient history as those that call themselves Jews), his work should be regarded as of seminal importance. However, I can't quite accept his premise that there is no binding Jewish blood. One has only to look at the arts - particularly music, to see the extent to which those with Jewish blood seem to have acquired a special mastery and sensitivity.

The Drapers' City Service

The Drapers' traditional New Year's Service was held at St Michael's Cornhill on 8th January 2010, with lunch at the Hall afterwards. The service was enlivened by a splendid address by Professor The Reverend Edward Norman and the singing of Lux Aeterna by Sir Edward Elgar. Click the heading for a video of the choir practicising the anthem, being conducted by Jonathan Rennert.

Elmore Abbey

I have to thank my friend Fr Frowin Reed, a Benedicine friar from Conception Abbey, Missouri, for the discovery that there are many abbeys still buried in the English countryside. Elmore is one of the smallest with only four monks, but it stands in a beautiful part of Berkshire and has a fine church next door. As one of my friends said, it's one of those marvellous places where 'the veil is very thin'.

Click the heading for more photos of the Abbey and our travels

Happy New Year

Wish I could have been in Sydney to see the fireworks at New Year. They looked to be more spectacular than ever, but London and particularly Edinburgh were terrific as well.

Christmas Scenes 2009

Snow

Snow in Hampshire


Snow in Sweden (sent by a friend). The hanging decoration is called a Winter Light. I think we should have them here

Litchfield Carol Service

The carol service at Litchfield is held in the evening on the Sunday before Christmas. The little church is always full and we sing a full dozen carols.

Afterwards, mulled wine and mince pies are served in the village hall.

Christmas at the Orangery 2009

Royal Hospital Chelsea Carol Service 2009

The Carol Service for the Friends of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea was held in the Wren chapel on 10th December 2009. The singing was superb, led by the Royal Hospital choir which is one of the finest in the London. Click the heading for an iphone-quality video of 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing'

You can also see some photos here

The Mission to Seafarers Carol Concert 2009

The choir of Burntwood School. Click the photo for a larger view

The Mission to Seafarers Carol Concert was held as always at St Michael's Paternoster Royal, in the presence of the Princess Royal, accompanied by the chairman of the society, Robert Woods. This year the choir was from Burntwood School and they gave an exuberant and assured performance of both the well-known as well as some little known carols from around the world. Less good were the readers of excerpts from diaries and poems, Dan Snow and Tracy Edwards, who rushed their pieces so that it was difficult to understand them.

Click the heading for more photos of the City at Christmas.

Clic here for some on-line carols

Thomas Miller Carol Service 2009

As in previous years, the Thomas Miller Carol Service was held at St Katharine Cree Church, Leadenhall St with a reception afterwards at the office at 90 Fenchurch St. The chairman of the UK Club, Dino Caroussis, attended the service. Click the heaading for some photos from the event and here for some photos of the City at Christmas.

The Wellbeing of Women Christmas Fair 2009

The Wellbeing of Women Christmas Fair was held at Drapers' Hall on 7th December 2009. Click the heading for more photos from the event.