Category Archives: Uncategorized

Reading Remembrance of Things Past one night in bed, Jenkins is struck by a passage that he quotes extensively.  The writing is typically Proustian:  a memoir of a conversation that The Narrator had with the Turkish Ambassadress at a party given by … Continue reading →

Jenkins and Farebrother walk together into Whitehall. Farebrother suddenly raised his arm in a stiff salute. I did the same, taking my time from him, though not immediately conscious of whom we were both saluting. Then I quickly apprehended that … Continue reading →

Jenkins, sent to the Cabinet Offices to pick up some Belgian papers, reflects: The position of the King of the Belgians was delicate. Formally accepted as monarch of their country by the Belgian Government in exile, the royal portrait hanging … Continue reading →

At the theater, Nick sees Prince Theodoric sitting with Lord Huntercombe, both wearing dark suits, and Lady Huntercombe, “in a rather different role implied by her pre-war Gainsborough hats” who “was formidable in Red Cross commandant’s uniform.” [MP 103/98] Nick has previously … Continue reading →

Memling, Teniers, Brouwer While overseeing the Belgian attaches in London, Nick muses: On the whole, a march-past of Belgian troops summoned up the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, emaciated, Memling-like men-at-arms on their way to supervise the Crucifixion or some … Continue reading →

Jenkins mentions a bust of Lord Kitchener seen as one climbed the staircase at the War Office. He sees “Kitchener’s cold angry eyes, haunting and haunted, surveying with deepest disapproval all who came that way.” [MP 55/51, 59/54] Lord Horatio … Continue reading →

Jenkins, on his way to Finn’s office on the second floor, notes the decor: Outside the Army Council Room, side by side on the passage wall, hung,  so far as I knew, the only pictures in the building, a pair … Continue reading →

Jenkins, speaking of their Polish counterparts, asks Pennistone, You put them through their literary paces as a matter of routine? … Pennistone laughed at the thought. Though absolutely dedicated to his duties with the Poles, he also liked getting as … Continue reading →

Géricault’s  Raft of the Medusa Nick enjoys lunching with the Free French at their headquarters in London.  “Their headquarter mess in Pimlico was decorated with an enormous fresco, the subject of which I always forgot to enquire. Perhaps it was … Continue reading →