22 DECEMBER 2007
Tim's new weekly news update
I’m not vanishing from the screen – just assuming a slightly different guise. . . .
LAST WEEK began with a brief trip to London for a flag-waving
exercise: the Daily Mail books and Ephraim Hardcastle party and the
Ritz Hotel party at William Kent House next to the hotel. Both full of
familiar faces and characterised by the usual “How nice to see you. I
thought you were in Cornwall.’ Paradoxically I think this is what
justifies trips such as this. It was fun too once one I had arrived.
The 11.06 through train to Paddington was cancelled; the next local to
Plymouth was so full the driver wouldn’t take it on unless people
disembarked. I finally got a train to Plymouth around 12.44 and got to
London at about six. My day in town was spent at the London Library
researching Jardine and I took the sleeper home.
Otherwise it’s been mainly catching up, writing a Bristol City piece
for the Spectator and sorting out papers into various categories and
hoping I don’t throw too much of the wrong stuff away. A lunch in
North Cornwall, Bath Chaps at the Yacht Club, an almost final
pre-Christmas shop, deciphering Christmas cards, worrying about
whether or not one had got one’s presents “right”.
THIS WEEK will be dominated, of course by Christmas. Penny and I will
be spending it quietly at home before three of my four children
(Alexander, Lucy and Tristram) plus two partners/wives descend for New
Year. Most of the rest of the world seems to have shut down and taken
time off. I shall do a bit of the same while catching up, sorting out
and seeing if I can make a slightly different sort of weekly blog
actually work out. I’ll try to give it a year anyway. But thank-you
anyway to all those who have expressed regret at the end of the old
version. To you and also to those who appeared not to approve I’m not
vanishing from the screen – just assuming a slightly different guise.
Oh, I’ll try to keep a check on future engagements of various sorts. I
have been trying to sort various speaking sessions. I have a Book Club
dinner near Exeter at the end of February and a whole raft of cricket
societies in mid March (Chesterfield, High Peak, Southport, Liverpool
and Old Trafford). Also an as yet imprecise engagement in Brittany in
mid February and another at this year’s du Maurier Festival in
mid-May. I’ll try to be more precise nearer the time. Meanwhile, of
course, a number of books are still in print and you can check on
various web-sites. And the Spectator ran a little piece on Budapest in
the business pages of their Christmas issue and the Tablet carried my
review of Graham Robb’s excellent book on France. So there’s a lot
going on!
Meanwhile Happy Christmas and see you in the New Year I hope.
Tim Heald
