A Right Royal Wedding
What is the secret of the enduring popularity of the British monarchy? What curious alchemy is at work? I can understand why my father, the venerable Read, God rest his soul, was such a fervent monarchist. He was, as he frequently told us, one of Churchill’s few. He fought for King and country, though I doubt the King was that impressed when he wrote off three Hurricanes without even seeing the enemy. It’s enough to make a st-st-statesman st-st-stutter. But sixty years on, and a sequence of public relations disasters,... Read more »
Lost
‘Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.’ It was like a metronome, every second. Simon worked out that at this rate, she would say oh dear, 3600 times an hour, up to 50,000 times a day, 15 million times a year. But the mantra had some more intense... Read more »
Summoned for Christmas
Getting a summons for driving without due care and attention just added insult to injury, I had been knocked unconscious, fractured ribs, vertebrae, punctured my lung and my left kidney. But my letter advised me that it would go better for me if I admitted culpability. I felt hurt and... Read more »
Possession; on stage and off it.
Good actors, declared Sir Richard Eyre, speaking last week at The Guild of Psychotherapists annual lecture, have to be possessed by the characters they are playing. They have to immerse themselves in their character’s world, feel what it is like to be them, experience the passion and then act it... Read more »
A Night-time Visit
It was half past nine in the evening and quite dark. The phone rang. It was dad. He was very agitated. ‘There are people in my house - lots of them; men and women. They’re sitting on my settee. I have told them to go but they won’t.’ ‘Who are they... Read more »
Are accidents ever accidental?
A few years ago, while staying in London, I was coming down the stairs carrying an open suitcase, but there were more steps than there were at home, I couldn't see where I was putting my feet and I was preoccupied with anxieties about being away from home. Three steps... Read more »
Peer review or publicity; how to solve a problem like Ida.
Ida was no more than two feet in length, she had a cat-like face, a long tail and judging from the shape of her ankle, walked upright. Cladistic analysis might have suggested she was probably related to lemurs, but she was heralded as a missing link between other mammals to... Read more »
There’s a gap in my life.
I have absolutely no recollection of what happened. I stayed and wrote up my notes for a bit. Then I went into the basement, collected my keys and drove up through Broomhill and westwards out along the Fulwood Road towards the moors. I can't remember what I was thinking. Mum... Read more »
