Do you have a smart meter? Of course you do. You’ve been badgered to convert to one by your energy company, and by all those pictures of smiling happy people with miraculously lowered fuel bills, until you gave in. It’s free, after all. That is, ‘fre

Twenty or so years ago, I had a splendid lunch at La Famiglia in Chelsea with the late Alvaro Maccioni. The restaurant’s illustrious owner, since the 1960s he had counted A-list celebrities not just as customers, but as friends. While Alvaro was a pr

Q I’ve been asked to sketch out a family tree from the 1800s to put up at my aunt’s 80th birthday. I’ve had quite a bit of experience with genealogy and, as we are a very fertile family, there’s a lot of work to do. My problem is that one of my cousi

On 28th June 1914 – 110 years ago -Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, sparking off the First World War. My great-uncle Dr Richard Pollak tried to save his life. In 1951, when I was four, my parents took my older brother Michael and

The Quality of Love: Twin Sisters at the Heart of the Century By Ariane Bankes Duckworth £18.99 In 1935, Norman Parkinson photographed two lovely twin sisters wearing ruffles and with their beautiful profiles shown to best advantage. The celebrated P

Silver linings, anyone? Our unusually wet spring and straitened national circumstances might combine to preserve this year’s roadsides from the municipal lawnmower. So our native wildflowers can set seed, go forth and multiply for the benefit of thos

My first job was as a clerk to a South African judge during apartheid. Green as grass, I was outraged when he sentenced Xhosa, who’d raped a white woman, to death, but gave a suspended sentence to man who had raped and beaten his 11-year-old niece wh

No offence, but many oldies heading for the sun may now be cringing at the thought of exposing themselves. The beach will force a moment of truth for those whose figures have gone. Whether we let our figures go, or they went of their own accord, is a

Lord Falconer of Thoroton KC, the former Lord Chancellor, gave a tribute for Lord Morris of Aberavon, the last surviving member of Harold Wilson’s Cabinet, at St Margaret’s, Westminster. As John Morris, he was Secretary of State for Wales, 1974-79, a

Of all the oddities that make The Third Man so compelling, the oddest is that its sublime Vienna setting was an accident. If things had gone differently, the film – released 75 years ago, on 31st August 1949 – would have been set in London. The origi

FOR COMPETITION No 306 it was time for the annual, ever popular challenge of bouts-rimés, writing a poem with specified rhyme words in order. The rhyme scheme was based on a poem beginning ‘Set me whereas the sun doth parch the green’ by Henry Howard

Long Island Colm Tóibín Picador £20 If you really squint, the chasm between Colm Tóibín and Simon Bates can shrink to nothing. Imagine the ardent strings of Radio 1’s Our Tune sawing away under the story of a teenage girl from provincial Ireland sent

Editor Harry Mount Sub-editor Penny Phillips Art editor Michael Hardaker Supplements editor Charlotte Metcalf Editorial assistant Amelia Milne Publisher James Pembroke Patron saints Jeremy Lewis, Barry Cryer At large Richard Beatty Our Old Master Dav

Like many people, I suspect, I have mixed feelings about the migrants who arrive in Kent on dinghies. Yes, it’s illegal, dangerous and the numbers are concerning; but wouldn’t you also be sorry for individuals and families who take huge risks to find

One sunny Monday morning in May, something unexpected happened in downtown Manhattan. The Empire State Building, the proud architectural symbol of American life, was lit up with, of all things, an ad for a cricket tournament. Flicking the switch to c

'Are you downsizing?’ asked the estate agent sympathetically, as I squeezed past her to view a potential flat. As a fellow oldie, she had guessed right. Like thousands before me, I was having to face up to the fact that the time had come (accelerated

Happy 100th birthday to Roy Cross, the artist who painted the iconic covers of Airfix models – so close to the heart of so many oldies now. Roy turned 100 on St George’s Day. In 1942, when Roy was only 18, he had his first published work with line dr

Is there anything you can’t leave home without? A travelling knife and fork. Is there something you really miss? The dogs. I’d love to take the dogs on tour, like Maria Callas. Do you travel light? After touring from my 20s to my 60s, it’s now a fine

Kensington News? Kensington Church Street in London was part of the Swinging Sixties – especially the lower end, when Biba the boutique arrived 60 years ago, in 1964. But, in the less fashionable bit near Notting Hill Gate, there was a business that

‘Unlucky,’ said dummy. ‘I’d have got the hearts wrong, too.’ ‘Thanks,’ said declarer. He then turned to Mrs Voyant, a shrewd player who’d been kibitzing. ‘Claire,’ he asked, ‘Should I have got that right?’ (1) Weak two, showing 5-10 points and a dece