Culture

Winton Marsalis is at Ronnie Scott's in July so having booked my tickets I have been listening to two CDs one with Willie Nelson and the other with Eric Clapton......dreamy....

Social Networking 21 13-19 May 2013 Monday Returned from Istanbul Tuesday Jeremy Charles @ High Timber Dr Alexander Brand @ Westminster South Medical Centre Charles Corea Exhibition @ RIBA Richard Blaksley @ Boisdale Wednesday Eduardo @ Tom Tom Cafe Blood @ Westminster South Medical Centre Mark Davies @ Thomas Cubitt Tessa, Neil, Trish  & Emily - Ambassadors, Trinity Hospice @ The Sun, Clapham Thursday Anna Anketell @ Cork & Bottle Great...

Istanbul 21 Nearly three years ago, a few months before my daughter's 21st birthday, I asked her what she would like for a present. I suggested we went away together so we would always remember it. I lobbed up the odd suggestion like the Blue Train from Joburg to Cape Town and then a trip to Robben Island finishing with a safari.  But each time, she would respond "That's what you want to do Dad" to which there was a modicum of truth! Finally, finally last year she settled on Istanbul...

Great Gatsby @ Chelsea Curzon I went to see the Great Gatsby shot in 3D last night (there is also a 2D version). The audience was split between us oldies and youngsters in their 20s/early 30s who missed the last version of this film back in 1974. All told there have been five versions: 1926 - by Herbert Brenon, a silent movie now lost 1949 - by Elliott Nugent, starring Alan Ladd 1974 - by Jack Clayton, starring Robert Redford 2000 - by  Robert Markowitz, a...

Petition Response from David Ruse, Tri-borough Director of Libraries and Archives Date sent: 17th May 2013 Dear Cllr Dimoldenberg Your petition asking the Council to 'reject proposals to cut the entire £350,000 a year budget for Arts and Culture over the next two years' has now closed for the collection of signatures.  The petition received 901 signatures.  As the relevant Chief Officer, I have carefully considered the petition and set out the Council’s...

Richard and I met watching our respective sons playing rugby at school and we have maintained our friendship since. On Tuesday we had a quiet dinner at Boisdale's.

RIBA has a grand exhibition of Charles Correa's work - he is India's greatest architect and winner of RIBA's Gold Medal. His work is not so well known here. His was influenced by Le Corbusier whose work in India included much of the new city of Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab and Haryana. It's a great pity there isn't much published about Correa's life and work. Perhaps RIBA could work with Phaidon to create a mini series of the Gold Medal Winners.   I went to the launch...

Sorry I haven't put anything up for a week but I have been in Istanbul for five days - what a great city - more soon.

I live by myself and have done so for six years and many of my friends have been unbelievably kind during this time inviting me for lunch, supper and weekends. So last Tuesday over eighty of them came to a thank you party bash at the LooseBox in Horseferry Road.

Jilly and I went up The Shard last Monday to celebrate our first anniversary since we first met at the Tate Modern. Luckily, it was a clear and sunny evening - it was deserted - and so we had the place more or less to ourselves. It is such a sensational building and the view from the very top is simply spectacular.

Social Networking 20 6-12 May, 2013 Monday London Skyline @ The Shard Tuesday Vic Luck @ Twickenham Sue Boreham @ Trinity Hospice Heena Patel @ Pimlico Clinic Party @ LooseBox Bump Jonathan Shaw Ian Pearson Ken Pyne David & Caroline Hooper Peter & Ros Grose John Denham MP Caroline Flint MP Gareth Thomas MP Ginny Tate Ambre Hammond Joy Camm Guy Bell Lynne Ager Tessa Moore David Clarson Roger Truelove Wednesday Finance Committee@ Trinity...

Social Networking 19 29/04-05/05 2013 Monday Mr Miles @ National Orthopedic Hospital CEO Candidates Day @ Trinity Hospice Bump Iain McGourty David Clarson Lynne Ager Peter Gluckman Tuesday Dr Othman Ali Alzamil @ KFA Memorial for HE Prime Minister Meles Zenawi @ Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, SW1 Bump HE Berthanu Kebede Ethiopian Ambassador to UK Gordon Brown Myles Wickstead, former UK Ambassador to Ethiopia Paul Boateng Clare Short Mark Malloch-Brown Dr...

Yesterday, I joined Hugh McCormick at Ronnie Scott's for a late Sunday lunch to hear Digby Fairweather and his talented ensemble - and jolly good it was too.

On Friday evening, I was just settling down to an evening with Eric Schmidt's book on the New Digital Age when Jane Evans and old mucker from my Parliamentary days called to ask me at 6.15pm whether I'd like a join her at The National to see The House. She had asked a friend but she was stuck on the M25 and was definitely not going to make it. So it was that I found myself as part of the audience to the back of the stage for a play I had tried to book myself but it has been such a monster...

I saw Jack, my son, yesterday in Bath and we lunched at Graze by the station. It is a relatively new restaurant (five months or so) and not to our liking. The starters were poor and slight and expensive. The bread was stale. The service was slow. We certainly won't be returning. 

Hester Finch works at Trinity Hospice but doubles as an artist. Now, no laughing but look at: http://www.oaksmithstudio.co.uk/2013/05/three-into-one/

On Wednesday evening, I was the guest speaker at the London branch of the Old Ipswichian Club at Dartmouth House, home of the English Speaking Union. I had prepared a speech lasting just on fifteen minutes but during the supper, I was advised that some members had to catch the fast train back to Ipswich and so I speeded my deliver up and took eight pages out!! I had some complimentary emails about the quality of my jokes.......

Jilly and I went to see The Audience last night. It was simply brilliant. The play had been updated to include the Thatcher funeral. Interestingly, missing from an "audience" were Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Callaghan (almost), Heath and Blair. The surprise package was Wilson. The best lines were when HM "interviewed" Major or Brown which had us crying in the aisles with laughter. Go see.

After The Audience I tripped along to Ronnie's to hear Madeleine Peyroux. I'd last heard her at The Barbican in 2006. Her backing group last night comprised two violinists (one from NY was superb), a viola player, a cellist and a bass plus piano, drums and electric guitar. She also played guitar. He style has changed - she's still not really comfortable performing but having a security blanket of a band has helped. She was largely solo last time I saw her. Her new album is largely copies

I went with Daisy to see A Late Quartet last night. It started quietly and took some time to warm up but had a rather touching ending. ***

Finally, I managed to find time to return to the V&A for the David Bowie exhibition which was simply sensational and well worth a visit.

With Daisy, my daughter, I went to see Dans la Maison starring Kirstin Scott Thomas late last night. We had a quick bite to eat at the Cork & Bottle before moving on to the Odeon in Panton Street.  It simply wouldn't have been possible to have raised the money for this slight film in the UK. This may speak volumes for the huge state subsidy in France but in the end my sense is that this makes the industry there more claustrophobic.  I will spare you the plot which is...

Some time back I was cogitating on how I might give something back to my old school at Colchester. I have been a donor to Exeter University and St. Catherine's College, Oxford over the past 20 years where I studied. Strangely, the Open University, where I read Modern Art & Architecture for six years whilst trying to hold down a job, a marriage and playing for Bedford and England, hasn't yet approached its alumni for help. Anyway, I had two wonderful years in the sixth form at RGS...

Social Networking 17 15-21 April 2013 Monday Geoff Bennett @ Highgate Simon Halliday & Stephen Pearson @ Oxford & Cambridge Club Tuesday Malcolm Taylor & David Harrington @ Cork & Bottle DPA @ Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, Parliament The Internet of Things seminar Bump Jeremy Hunt MP Tom Bradby ITV News Merlin Errol HoL Ian Taylor Peter van Manen Rob van Kranenburg Maurizio Pilu Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino Andy Love MP Ivan Lewis MP Supper @...

Two People in Verona I went with Jilly to Verona for a lazy weekend. On Friday evening, we flew BA from Gatwick which was a breeze. We'd checked in online and with only hand luggage we were through to duty free in a trice. The relatively new owners of the airport have done a much better job with the improved exits from the station and better signage plus a more caring management system through security.  (We celebrated at the Champagne bar). It was as good in Verona where we were in...

Social Networking 16 8-14 April 2013 Monday Head Hunters @ Trinity Hospice Bump Ian Joseph Katharine Jackson Peter Gluckman Lynne Ager Maxine Taylor @ King's College Bump Sir Ric Trainor Man Ray exhibition @ NPG Tuesday Norman Foster @ RIBA Bump Sheila Stirling Razia Iqbal Wednesday Genius Bar, Apple Shop @ Regent Street: 26 minute wait Thursday Daisy @ Ole Sole Mio Friday Verona Saturday Verona Sunday Verona

Norman Foster was interviewed last night by Russia Iqbal at RIBA. The queue for this BBC World Service programme was twice round the block when I arrived just after six thirty for a seven o'clock start.  Foster disclosed that his team had built nearly 300 buildings......which is frankly amazing.  I have been to see: Willis Faber in Ipswich Beijing Airport Hong Kong Airport The Gherkin Standard Airport - he's rather good at airports British...

I went with Jilly to the Friends of NPG private showing of the Man Ray exhibition last night. It features over 150 prints and key works. It was interesting to see Picasso with hair and a very stylised shot of Le Corbusier..... Go see: it was very busy last night.

Jilly and I went to see Pinter's Old Times at the old Comedy Theatre now renamed the Harold Pinter...... My it was hard going........... If a theatre needed a facelift, this one sure does - cramped seats, bad eye lines and overpriced everything (£7.50 for a glass of Prosecco) including the tickets......theatre needs to take some lessons from The National.....

Social Networking 15 1st -7th April 2013 Easter Monday Cobham U21s v Richmond U21s @ Cobham Sports Association Surrey Cup Final Richmond winning 35-29 Bump Colin Herridge Steve Hill Tuesday Jack @ Aldeburgh Bump Michael Pritt, Wentworth Hotel Graham Simper, Thompson's Gallery Wednesday Daisy @ Mekong Thursday Derek Underwood @ Paddock Wood Friday AQOTWF Saturday Richmond v Fylde 35-29 Old Times @ Pinter Theatre Sunday AQOTWF

It is great news that the British Library is now officially able to collect digital information from the net.  In 2009, they asked me to deposit my own web site: www.derekwyattexmp.co.uk there.

I snicked away this morning - well after I'd been to Kwik Fit in Chelsea to pour £255 into their coffers for a puncture I had picked up yesterday - to Aldeburgh with Jack. He's at Bath Uni in his second year pondering what to do next. And though we think we're busy these kids of ours are twice as energetic. They pour more time into their academic studies over a year than we did in a week and then they party like there's no tomorrow.... So he'd kind of tricked me into suggesting he...

Social Networking 15 25th-31st March 2013 Monday Ride of the Lions Bump Jimmy Hibbert Peter Winterbottom Richard Gorman Mike Gore Trustees Board @ Trinity Hospice Bump David Clarson Digital Photography @ Pimlico Tuesday Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chairman, Arts Council Apple Store @ Coventry Garden Sittingbourne & Sheppey Labour Party Dinner @ The Coniston Hotel Bump Andy Sawford MP Roger Truelove Christine Truelove Ghlin Whelan Eamon Norton Shelly...

Social Networking 13 18-24 March 2013 Monday Names Not Numbers@Aldeburgh Bump Hannah Rothschild, author Charlie Leadbeater, author Martin Davidson, CEO, British Council Alice Sherwood, King's College Judy Piatkus Sophie Radice, author Robert Phillips Suzanna Taverne, BBC Trust Alice Sherwood, King's College Jonathan Reekie, Snape Maltings Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Lucy Prebble, Playwright Tommy Helsby Liz Cobbold, Adnams Maxine Taylor, King's College Tuesday Names Not...

My reading table is beginning to groan:  Divided Nations by Ian Goldin* Networks of Outrage & Hope by Manuel Castells* The Baroness by Hannah Rothschild*   To Save Everything Click Here by Evgeny Morozov*  The Victory Lab by Sasha Issenberg Big Data by Mayer-Schonberger* & Cukier * Attended talk or lecture at Names Not Numbers, RSA or OII

I had supper with Dennis MacShane and Callum Macdonald earlier in the week and I dug out a bottle of Chinese Cabernet 1992 given to me as a gift when I was in Beijing in 2009. It had the name: Baiyanghe on its label. I'm not sure how professional the Chinese wine market was in 1992....and though it didn't rattle my fillings it certainly hadn't benefitted from being kept.......

I was back at the RSA last night for a second helping but this time the lecturer was the Manuel Castells now at USC and Berkeley in California. He was here to promote his book: Networks of Outrage and Hope and that was the scope of his lecture. He talked for just under an hour on "Outrage" the public non-violent protests which started in Iceland and spread to America and across mainland Europe and then moved on to "Hope" about the Arab Spring and its consequences. It was a tour de force the...

I went this morning to the RSA in John Adam Street to the launch of Peter Bazalgette's "The Grand Tour in the new Grand Partnership" inaugural lecture as the new (six weeks) chairman of the Arts Council. You can access it at www.thersa.org . He spoke for 25 minutes and then took questions. I asked the first one: Would he create a joint venture between the Arts Council and the RSA to bring forward ArtsBank - the first crowdsourcing arts bank in the world? Afterwards he said he...

We held our fifth UK Names Not Numbers symposium but for the first time at Aldeburgh. After our first one in 2009 at Portmeirion (which took six hours by coach) I did suggest to Julia H that we considered Aldeburgh......anyway we made it..... It is quite thrilling to be involved in a NNN event and this year was no exception where there were some quite sensational events, talks, discussions and lectures. You can follow it at www.namenotnumbers.com

I was at two grammar schools - Westcliff CHS in Southend (1961-66) and then Colchester RGS (1966-68). It would be fair to conclude that I was not as studious in the classroom as I was on the playing fields. Anyway, I have been trying to find a way to say thank you to one of them - Colchester - and especially to the late Jack Elam. my wonderful head teacher.   For the next ten years, I have agreed to fund an annual travel bursary award of £500, for Years 11, 12...

Social Networking 12 11th-17th March 2013 Monday James Garvey & Anne Hooper @ Trinity Hospice www.trinityhospice.org.uk   Digital Photography @ Pimlico Adult Education Centre Tuesday Blood @ Vincent Square David Spruce (QBE) @ Cork & Bottle www.qbe.com Agnes Venema & Megg Munn MP@ Parliamentarian Network for Conflict Prevention, Brussels Bump Frank Doran MP Julian Brazier MP Frank Field MP Tom Bradby ITN www.pncp.net Daniel Libeskind @...

I caught Side Effects thanks to a tip from Jack, my son.   I thought the ending surreal but for 85% of the time this was a gripping tale with a great performance from Jude Law. Go see.

I was a guest of RIBA last night for the BBC World Service interview (conducted by Razia Iqba)l with the great Daniel Libeskind whose work is nothing short of genius..... Consider: Jewish Museum, Berlin Imperial War Museum North Royal Ontario Museum The Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin Dresden Museum of Military History Keppel Bay, Singapore and Zlota 44, Warsaw Plus of course his work at Ground Zero, NY He gave an extraordinary rich interview last night which...

With Jilly I went to see La Boheme at the ROH last night.  What makes an opera work? ** the acting? * the opera singers? ** um, the music? * the sets?  * the occasion? ** the service of the opera house staff? ** all of the above? Well, it was simply wonderful last night and when I returned home I sat for a couple of hours just wallowing in what an amazing experience the evening had been. The ROH itself is such a great centre of excellence.  

Social Networking 10 25th Feb - 3rd March 2013 Monday Shelly Bancroft@Pimlico Christianne Wolff@BodyRescue Digital Photography@Pimlico AEC Tuesday Denise Westbury-Haines, BT @ Portcullis House Bump Jack Dromey MP Stephen Pound MP  Stephen Twigg MP John Mann MP  Dr Brand @ Vincent Square Medical Centre Katie Lockett @ Parkfield Ian Pearson@The Orange, Pimlico Wednesday Dele @ Caffe Nero, Pimlico Thursday Live Radio 2 Pilot Comedy Show @ Ronnie...

I had lunch today at The Garrick with David Hooper who I have known for over 25 years. He was our lawyer when we published Spycatcher. 

I went to see the Lichtenstein Retrospective at Tate Modern this morning. Even at 12 noon there was a healthy crowd in the galleries.  I liked his sculptures in Room 6 which came as a surprise and showed his debt to the Art Deco movement. I still think his houses at The Met in NY are his best work but there is an extraordinary range of material on show here.  I love his work and thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition: a definite must-see. 

Social Networking 9 18th-25th February 2013 Monday Christianne Wolf @ BodyRescue Tuesday AQONTWF Wednesday Richard Gorman & Peter Winterbottom@ Ride of the Lions Sam @ Dress 2 Kill Thursday Anna Yallop & Mark Malloch Brown@ The American Bar Daisy @ Smollensky's Friday Sue, Sally & Hester @ Trinity Hospice Saturday England v France @ Twickenham Bump Bill Treadwell Mike & Anna Rafter Simon Halliday Bob Hiller Paul Simpson Brian...

I met Bruce Reynolds a couple of times in 1990-91 usually with Laurie Taylor at a hotel in Sloane Street. I was trying to persuade them to work together to write Reynolds' autobiography but my recollection is that they wanted north of £10k and I wasn't sure that it was worth that......eventually An Autobiography of a Thief was published in 1995 by Transworld. 

I went to a pilot yesterday at Ronnie's put together by Joe Stilgoe (son of Richard) which included a host of stars just under the radar including Heather Headley and Tim Minchin. The show lasted 90 minutes but with editing would make quite a slick one hour topical show. Let's hope One Night Stand is commissioned as it had us laughing in the aisles. 

Well though we all fell asleep watching Lincoln we did think Daniel Day-Lewis would win best actor and though we saw Argo late we were thrilled it won Best Film at the Oscars overnight.

We returned from Eastleigh around 5pm and settled for a very late lunch at Thomas Cubitt, in Belgravia. Notwithstanding, the place was packed!

Social Networking 8 11-17 February 2013 A Quieter Week Monday Photography @  Lupus Street Tuesday James Garvey @ RAC Club Wednesday APP Women's Sports & Fitness Group@Parliament Bump Alex Russell Sue Tibballs Clova Fyffe Andrew Tyrie MP Douglas Carswell MP Paul Farrelly MP Thursday Lisa Perrin @Shine Richard Gorman @ Cork & Bottle Friday Ginny Tate@Trinity Restaurant Saturday Richmond v Coventry 34-33 Sunday Campaigning: Eastleigh...

Ladies, Gentlemen, M’dears:   Two Fridays ago, I took the phone call that told me Frank had died, while I was in the hideous centre of Stevenage New Town, a bizarre disjunction I am still trying to process. That has made me extra-conscious of the sense of place that surrounds Jane’s choice of settings for today’s events.               Here we are in the High Victorian, Catholic-Revival-Gothic of this...

On Wednesday, I was a guest of RIBA at their annual RGM and fellowships which went to Swiss Architect, Peter Zumthor. I had not been before and thought it was a very special occasion worthy of much greater coverage in the media. www.architecture.com

Social Networking 7 4th-10th February 2013 Monday Nick Emery @ Trafalgar Hotel Bump Ann Sutton David Taylor & Joe Downey @ Loosebox Sir Rick Trainor @ Home House for a supper discussion about the Internet Bump Ann LaFrance Nick Lansman Nick Pickles Stewart Binnie Garret Cowley Charles Sherwood Tuesday Works of Art @ Parliament Bump Frank Doran MP, Chairman Emma Gormley, Assistant Curator Melanie Unwin, Deputy Curator Malcolm Hay, Curator Lord...

I saw Argo on Sunday evening which justifiably has had rave reviews. Set in Iran in 1979 it is the story of six American diplomats holed up in the Canadian Embassy. The problem was that if they weren't rescued they would be strung up on a nearby lamp post........this is their story.....absolutely gripping.... 

Jilly and I were guests as the RIBA Patron's Launch Party at HQ on Thursday evening which was great fun and very interresting.

On Thursday I was back at the Cork & Bottle for a working lunch with Simon Halliday and HH Jeff Blackett dropped in too; the subject was mainly rugby - Oxford, England and England, Oxford! 

I was at The Shard to meet Ben Rogers, who directs the new-ish Centre for London Think Tank. It was also the first day of the opening of the building to the public and there was quite a crush...and so I little later I dropped into the packed Shard tourist bookshop.... Ben and I traded information and I hope I will become more involved in his team's work. 

Social Networking 6 28th Jan - 3rd Feb 2013 Monday Colin Smith @ Oxford Christianne Wolff @ Chesham Digital Photography @ Pimlico Centre Tuesday Annual Medical Check Up @ Victoria Medical Centre A Suit That Doesn't Fit @ Glasshouse Street Jonathan Shaw @ Pimlico Wednesday John Hopkins & Anna Yallop @ Cork & Bottle Thursday Simon Halliday & Jeff Blackett @ Cork & Bottle RIBA Patron's Party @ RIBA Bump Gill Webber Friday Ben Rogers @ Shard...

I had lunch with John Hopkins, former Golf Correspondent of both The Times and The Sunday Times. His new book will be an anthology of his work and Anna Yallop with whom I have worked on and off for 20 years. We had a merry time at the Cork & Bottle.......

Social Networking 5 21st-27th January 2013 Monday Snow so AQOTWF Tuesday Snow so still AQOTWF Wednesday Daisy @ Barbican, City Uni, Master's Graduation in Magazine Journalism Thursday Doug Smith's funeral @ Mortlake Bump Derek Underwood Derek Ufton Nick Lansman Friday Parliamentary Rugby Awards Dinner John Hayes Martyn Williams Stephen Jones Rory Underwood Peter Winterbottom Gavin Hastings Ian McLauchlan Saturday Brunch at Regency...

Social Networking 4 14th-20th January, 2013 Monday Anne Hooper & Sarah Smith @ Trinity Paul Farrelly, Anna Yallop & Kate Kiln@ Cinnamon Club Bump: Martin Bean, Vice Chancellor, Open University Tuesday John Webster @ Grosvenor Square Ian Pearson @ Orange Wednesday AQOTWF Thursday Christianne Wolff @ Chesham Steve Tudhope @ Victoria Street Trinity Hospice Trustees @ The Sun Friday Trinity Hospice, Clapham Executive Board Staff &...

Social Networking 43 7th-13th January 2013 Monday Car Engines, Southall Annual Service & MOT Tuesday Ian Joseph & Melissa Baxter @ RUSSAM GMS & Trustees Unlimited Trustee recruitment Howard Scott and Wyndham Lewis from BIMA @ Hospital Club Internet stuff Jim Fullalove & Martin Riddiford @ Therefore Saw their brilliant new product: www.indiegogo.com which has raised $350,000 on a crowd sourcing site a d drawn the admiration of Bill Gates. Appeared later on...

I was up with the lark to read the Sundays before going to see Les Mis at the Curzon Chelsea. There were less than 30 of us to watch a two and a half hour film! I'm not usually one for long films and am prone to drift off as in Lincoln recently in Nanaimo but I stayed the course which for a musical speaks volumes.....or in this case sings....... There was the odd genuflection to Oliver Twist and it was slightly strange watching a film about a failed revolution in Paris in English ...

We went to see People at the National last night. It's been a sell out since it opened late last year. It seems anything written by Alan Bennett is now a sell out. People was amusing and witty but not quite Bennett at his best. Jilly said that the audience was almost all over 60, if not 70, and I added that it was entirely white. I thought the set was wonderful, the acting top drawer especially Frances de la Tour but the facilities around the bars and restaurant were a joke.

I met Rachel recently at a Media Dinner at the Reform Club. She specialises in "hosting" drinks parties and the occasional dinner by that I mean she makes sure that invited guests meet who they should meet and makes sure we don't stand or sit on our own at such events. She's rather good at it. Anyone we shared a glass of wine last night at the Stafford. Actually, she had the wine and I had the soft drink.

Like millions of others I am an alcoholic free zone for a month plus I am undergoing a detox and diet! So far so good.......though I am a couple of fitness sessions short which I will make up for over the weekend.

Daisy popped in on Thursday evening and we had a quick bite to eat at Thomas Cubbit in Elizabath Street, Belgravia.

We went to see The Impossible based on a Spanish family with three boys who were separated as a result of the tsunami which hit them on a beach in Thailand in 2004. The script has been altered to make it a British family.....I thought the script had pace, I liked the music and the acting wasn't that bad either.....

In 1999, I signed as an MP, to spend five days over a couple of months with a Design company or two. I chose Psion which was the iPad of its day. I had a 3c and then a 5. AS a consequence, I spent time with Martin Riddiford and Jim Fullalove. Fast forward to today and I caught up with them. They are now in another company called Therefore - www.therefore.co.uk  and they are doing very well indeed. They have been crowd sourcing for funding and even Bill Gates emailed last week to...

I bumped into the British Fashion Council's second Menswear Collection just before lunch at The Hospital Club. www.britishfashioncouncil.com  

Canadian Christmas Blog 2 Daisy & Jack Montreal Thursday 27th We were up at six to go to Nanaimo airport for our 0730 flight to Vancouver. Joyce kindly drove us. It was quite sad as I wasn't sure when we would be back (I have been averaging one visit every four years over the past 35 years). The weather was cold but thankfully there was no snow. However, there was a blizzard raging on the north east coast of America which was bound to end up in Montreal.....so we wondered...

Nate Silver correctly called the US Presidential elections in 2008 and 2012 and has become the political stats guru of this decade. Coincidentally his book The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction was published last month. It is a BIG book and it is not something you can read in a hurry (I am three chapters in).

Social Networking 2 17-26th December 2012  Monday 17th Christmas Drinks Chelsea Arts Club Kensington & Chelsea Today Kate Hawthorne  Parliament John Eales and family  Bump Gerry Sutcliffe MP  Tuesday 18th Breakfast @ Soho Hotel Phil Hall & Paul Blanchard   Lunch @ Daley's Colin Herridge  Supper @ Union Jack, Chiswick Private supper  Wednesday 19th Flight to Vancouver  Bump Mo Farah   Thursday...

Canadian Christmas Blog 1 Daisy & Jack Vancouver & Nanaimo  19th December Heathrow T3 to Vancouver on Air Canada  We were able to check in electronically and the queue for baggage drop was barely five minutes so immediately we liked AC! We were spending Christmas with the Canadian side of our family - Joyce, my sister, Devon and Mark,  my late brother's sons.   When we went in 2008 via Seattle, by the chronically dysfunctional North West Airlines, our

I bought: How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton M. Christensen after having listened to a programme about his work on BBC World Service last month. This nuggets of a book though isn't quite what it seems. It is more an exploration of how your life might develops through a range of examples drawn from his own research. It is not a blueprint for your own life though there is much that is sage in the text. I strongly recommend it.

I read Exposure: Inside the Olympus Scandal by Michael Woodford which is a record of his short time as CEO of Olympus - a first time a foreigner had ever been chosen to lead the company - and the slightly longer time he had suing it for wrongful dismissal.  It is an extraordinary story of deceit, wrong doing and cover up.......it is also a cracking read. 

With Daisy and Jack, my two children, we are spending our Christmas with our Canadian side of the family in Vancouver and Nanaimo before returning home via Montreal. 

We went to Jamie Oliver's Union Jack last night at Chiswick. When it opened earlier in the year you couldn't book but that changed after its first month. It has a retro feel about it and wonderful food all British but with a twist.......great to see a goodly collection of Chapel Down wines on the menu.

Yesterday, I was at the Chelsea Arts Club for the C&KT Christmas drinks shindig....

Three cracking dramas have dominated our television viewing these past few months - The Hour (BBC), The Killing (Danish/BBC) and Homeland (Fox/C4); only Homeland has one episode left. For sheer suspense The Killing wins my vote overall.

We spent the weekend in Paris trying to avoid beggars, tramps and drunks who littered Rue de Rivoli, Boulevard St Germain and the main churches on Sunday. This was not a familiar sight. One man begging had clearly had his face badly burned, others had appalling injuries or deformities. It was uncomfortable. This is not how a major European city should function. We didn't know whether this was a nation or a city issue or both or whether it was cuts in social security budgets..... whatever.... it

On Saturday we had breakfast in the shadow of Notre Dame and then visited it (it is celebrating its 850th year) and saw again the wonderful rich rose windows which have recently been cleaned. We walked the Boulevard Saint-Germain stopping briefly to pay homage at Les Deux Magots and pondered whether we should book Brasserie Lipp for supper. We then spent a couple of hours in the wonderful Musee d'Orsay marvelling at the Impressionist and Post Impressionist galleries. We liked it so...

After a disappointing breakfast at Le Zimmer (£5 for a pot of tea £12 for toast, an orange juice and a croissant) we walked up to Les Halles where probably the largest inner city renewal programme is in full swing. We ventured into Sainte Eustace church which was magnificent and overwhelmed us. We shop windowed in Rue de Honore especially in Mulberry and Gucci but were not persuaded.  We took a cab to Gare du Nord walked a few 100 metres from the tat...

Social Networking 1 10-16 December 2012 Monday 1. Vodafone Mobile Conference @ Tate Modern Bump Mark Malloch-Brown Dr Ian Goldin Tommy Helsby Julia Hobsbawm Steve Moore   2. Trinity Hospice, Trustees Katharine Jackson David Clarson Tuesday 3. London Hospice Chairs, House of Lords Michael Howard, Chair, Help the Hospices   Bump Bruce Grocott HoL Gerry Sutcliffe MP Fabian Hamilton MP 4. Media Dinner, Reform Club Clive Jones Harriet Harman...

I have had a painful time moving into my new flat as the glass bookcases ordered couldn't be fitted on my wall until yesterday when we added 18mm of plywood. This morning the glass went in and slowly my books are reappearing from their boxes. Just another 40 to go.

Whilst at the Vodafone Foundation's Mobiel for Good Summit yesterday I popped in to see the rather grand shows of William Klein and separately, Daido Moriyama. More at www.tate.org.uk

I just made it to a packed Dress 2 Kill venue for Christmas drinks on Wednesday and was happy to meet Chris Robshaw, England's rugby captain. I had my photo taken with him and as some wag put it: "There was a time when people would ask if they could have their photo with you......." 

We had a lovely supper in Chiswick last night to celebrate my birthday!! All in all, quite a full day....

Yesterday, my old mucker Tim Dick from San Fran flew in to take me to lunch at Galvin, on the top floor of the Hilton. Well, he actually flew in to do some business which happened to coincide with us celebrating my birthday!  

WE went to the launch of our first NNN conference at Aldeburgh in March next year  (we have held three in Portmeirion) at the Groucho Club last Monday evening organised by Editorial Intelligence (I am small shareholder). www.namesnotnumbers.com  www.editorialintelligence.com 

Daisy and Rupes and Jack and Charlie joined me for supper at About Thyme in Pimlico last night to celebrate my 150th birthday..............

The Church of England went against the laws of the UK by not allowing women Bishops. It is a church which matters less and less in our society.......small wonder.

We went to the Children's Proms which have been happening since 1970. Once again they were stunning showing a range of primary and secondary school talent which just showed how fortunate we are in our next but one generation. Over three nights there were 3000 performers!!

We were invited to Clarence House last night to shop at a special Highgrove fayre which was great fun except for my wallet. We later had supper at the RAC.

I had lunch at RIBA with Gill Webber at RIBA today. We first met up at the British Library when she was head of Comms a role she now has at RIBA. It is such a beautiful building which I guess is just as well!

On Sunday afternoon, I went with Daisy to the Pre Raphaelites at Tate Britain. This was a large show well curated which has gathered plenty of critical acclaim and a growing number of visitors (it closes on 13th January 2013). We have had a kind of infatuation for Morris, Holman Hunt, Ruskin, Rossetti et al and yet it was essentially a backward looking movement.........

There's not another entity in the media world which has so many useless bureaucrats as the BBC with titles which makes you weep......they breed.....it needs a non BBC DG to come in and revitalise its journalism which by the by is pretty good but most of all he/she needs to take out swathes and swathes of high salaried people who cannot make decisions and who will not take responsibility for their actions. I expect 3-4 more resignations.

I went to an excellent evening at the Oxford and Cambridge club organised by our Oxford Alumni office on Wednesday. Three speakers talked about the changes in the work place where already 1:6 are working either part time or choosing to have more than one job and that this is going to become much more the norm.....

I went with Daisy, my daughter, to hear Dianne Reeves at Ronnie Scott's last night. There was a packed house for her second night. She has won four grammy awards the last in 2006 and has recorded over 19 albums........and she was simply wonderful..... 

I went to see Skyfall yesterday morning at 1030. I thought I'd creep into Curzon Chelsea thinking hardly anyone would be up notwithstanding the extra hour in bed.....how wrong could I be...the cinema was reasonably full..... I loved the film - it moved fast, the music was excellent, the acting pretty good, the chases and gimmicks fun and the odd sense of humour had returned to the script...........the old Bond in a new formula is set fair for the next decade.

I went with Daisy to hear Don McLean at the RAH last night. It was the third time I had heard the singer-songwriter best known for American Pie and Vincent. His act took some time to warm up but in the latter half  of a 90 minute show he had us on our feet dancing and singing. He took a well deserved ten minute encore.

I went with Daisy to see the film of Jack Kerouac's great book On The Road at The Barbican last night. Afterwards, we couldn't think of one redeeming feature in the film. It lacked real pace, there wasn't enough music, there was no sense of America in the late 1940s early 1950s and it felt like lots of different sourced, yet in the end similar, scenes stitched together.

Emma Nicholson, who lives three doors up, arranged a farewell party for me yesterday afternoon (I am moving to Pimlico next week). She is such a decent soul. Fourteen neighbours turned out and we had a lovely time. Emma had done one chocolate cake for Westminster and another white chocolate cake for my beloved Siena. Bless her. 

I was invited to supper on Friday at The Markham Inn in Elystan Street, Chelsea thanks to Elie Bitar. He had in turn invited friends from LSE and UCL all under 30 - a banker, a lawyer, an HSBC sales person and a control risks guy. They were a lot of fun and the evening was even more interesting as one of the invitees had accidently taken a woman's kit bag from his gym and was worried sick about who might have taken his as it had in it his visa and passport and assorted other important...

Raymond Blanc has opened Brasserie Blanc at 9 Belvedere Road SE1 just opposite the National Theatre and we had lunch there yesterday. It is bigger than you think it could be from the outside and the ambience inside is a welcome boost to an area which has never rocked the soul irrespective of the theatrical and musical offerings elsewhere on the South Bank. I would suggest this might be a bit of a gamble for Monsieur Blanc. The wine list is good without being exceptional and the food was

I am reading Willpower: Why Self-Control is the Secret to Success but I am struggling to finish it.

I wasn't an immediate fan of the Beatles until Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in June, 1967. I do have a photo of them taken in Southend when they played there in 1963 or 1964. I also enjoyed The Searchers, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Hollies and The Animals. I was very late to the dance floor. Whenever possible I would go to all their concerts at The Gaumont or the Albert Hall and consequently saw Dusty, Roy O, Ike and Tina Turner, Inez and Charlie Fox, the Beach...

We went to the first concert (of two) of Van Morrison and his great band last night at Ronnie's. It was a sell out and he was sensational. VM sang, sometimes forgetting which song he was supposed to be playing to, but no-one cared as we all knew we were in the presence of one of the most loved musicians in the world. 

I bought Can't Get Used to Losing You as a 45 in 1963 or 1964. A school friend then borrowed it and I never saw it again. This event disturbed me for some time until a few years later I found the song on an LP. I hadn't understood the concept of the "Best Of" albums.......clearly I wasn't up with the pace. I loved Andy Williams' tv show which given I was also going to Beatles, Stones and Hollies concerts was probably rather odd!!  This morning I bought The Best of 100 Songs album by...

Jack, my son, treated us to breakfast yesterday at our favourite Diner, the Regency, in Regency Street which is just round the corner from my house. The "Us" was Dugald and Marguerite Macdonald with whom Jack had stayed during the summer in Cape Town. Dugald was in our squad when the Penguins RFC was invited in August, 1977 to the USSR to play in the Eastern European Cup alongside Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Dugald had played for Palma in Italy, gained a Blue at Oxford and played...

I saw True North's production of a documentary film about Mark Knopfler a month or so ago. I hadn't, to my chagrin, really followed him since his days at Dire Straits. I liked him as a person and as a performer and became quite engaged watching the film at his musical journey. I ordered his new double CD: Privateering whch I haven't stopped playing and I have booked tickets to see him at the Royal Albert Hall next May.  

I watched the last night of the Prom's and caught the sensational performance of Nicola Benedetti. These days when I have the television on I also find myself online on my iPad. One of the benefits is that when I see or hear something I like I immediately order it from Amazon. So watching Ms Benedetti perform led me to order her: The Silver Violin album which is a series of classic tracks taken from famous Hollywood films. It's very easy on the ear.  

I met the playwright Richard Marsh for coffee, or tea in my case, on Tuesday. He is working on a lay about soccer and had read my critical piece in The Times about the Olympics and thought I might have some insights.......(well, I am tiny share-holder in Charlton Athletic FC)......... 

I wonder if anyone has any further details about the artist Emma Haworth? I have her catalogue: In the Gardens of Good and Evil but cannot find her on twitter or Facebook nor is there a dedicated web site. I much like her work.

I have started: Willpower by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney Summer In February by Jonathan Smith & Heat by George Monbiot

Daisy and Jack were my guests last night as we saw Hope Springs (Eternal) at the Haymarket. Written by Vanessa Taylor and directed by David Frankel, Hope Springs is about a couple in their 50s whose marriage has atrophied in the sense that they have not had sex for over four years and hardly shared anything either. Arnold's (TLJ) idea of a brithday present is a new fridge for Kay, his beleaguered wife.  We laughed and cried throughout the film but especially when the couple

I had a delightful lunch yesterday at the Cork & Bottle with Lynne Brindley, the former CEO of the British Library. I did some work with her on regional newspapers where we persuaded a large number of family owned papers to allow the BL to digitise their archive.  

Whilst waiting for the Paralympic marathons to start this morning, I crept in early (it opens at 10am) at TB to see: Another London: International Photographers Capture London Life 1930-1980 (www.tate.org.uk) and would urge you all to go before it closes on 16th September, 2012. It has been harder to find time for anything but the Olympics and Paralympics these past two months but at last I seem to finding my rhythm again with a couple of movies and a show already under my...

Whilst at Tate Britain I dropped in on their Olympic posters gallery just outside the smaller book shop downstairs. There are twelve of them from some of our best artists and very good they are too. Originally, the Olympics awarded medals for Poetry, Fiction and Art (they were discontinued after 1912) and we should have re-introduced them in 2012......as our part of the legacy.... Go see: www.tate.org.uk

A month or so back I caught True Norths' compelling documentary about Mark Knopfler on C4. I had lost sight of where MK had been and what he was up to.... and loved his new music. Well, Privateers - his new album - was out on Thursday and I haven't stopped playing it. And, the good thing is he has a week of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in May next year and I managed to book 2 tickets this morning. Yea.

I went to see the film Anna Karenina starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law & Aaron Taylor-Johnson last night at the Odeon, Leicester Square. Leo Tolstoy wrote the novel back in 1877. I read it 35 years ago and thought at the time it was the finest book I had read. I was spell-bound by the fact that a man had seemingly been able to reach inside a woman's mind with such knowledge and intimacy.  I tired watching the endless scene changes though some were quite amusing but the jokes and...

Last night. I went to the Chelsea Arts Club as a guest. It is one of the friendliest clubs in town and hasn't changed much to when I first visited 28 years ago!!

I read Sarah Wiseman's charming, funny, clever book entitled When God was a Rabbit (the name of a rabbit) yesterday. I loved it and was (mostly) howling with laughter: a great debut novel.

I read Roger Mortimer's letters to his wayward son Charles Mortimer this morning encapsulated in the rather amusing book Dear Lupin (Charles was given this affectionate title by his father). My therapist suggested I read it. Clearly, she thinks this is how my relationship is with my son.

We went to Ronnie Scott's last night to listen to Booker T Jones and were simply bowled over. At least one of us wasn't aware that he'd written the music which Test Match Special has borrowed for the past 25 years or so! The concert was a sell-out and the music as vibrant (and a little too noisy - especially the drums) as ever. Booker T (and Sam Cooke) wrote or arranged so much material for so many US and UK artists and yet has never really been given the credit for it.

The Fix by Damian Thompson (Collins) I haven't done a book review for aeons. I have continued my reading on Italy, India and America: The Pursuit of Italy by David Gilmour (****) India: A Sacred Geography by Diana L. Eck (highly original) and Barack Obama by David Maraniss (which I didn't much care for) Little America: the War within the War for Afghanistan by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (brilliant - what a fiasco that country has become) plus two on Roger Bannister The...

We went to see Chicago at The Garrick yesterday - before it closes at the end of the month - and though it is in its 15th year it was a terrific performance which we much enjoyed. It has a great script, wonderful songs, a fabulous set and lots of clever dancing. We loved it.

We went to see the premier of Shadow Dancer starring Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen and Gillian Anderson at Cineworld in The Haymarket last night. The film was written by Tom Bradby (who also doubles as ITN's main politico journo) and directed by James Marsh and is set in Belfast largely in the early 1990s. This was a gripping film where the photography, music, direction, costumes, script and music combined to act as one as you were drawn into this taut...

I had lunch yesterday at the delightful restaurant upstairs at RIBA with Harry Rich (CEO) and Gill Webber (Marketing Director) and we chatted about their library collection which has to be the best in the world. 

We went for a long weekend to Elciego, about 70 miles south of Bilbao, in northern Spain, which house the great Riojan vineyard known as the Marques de Riscal (though we searched high and low we couldn't find out whether there really ever was a Marques....). We stayed at the Frank Gehry designed Vineyard Hotel (2006) on the site which was both a real surprise and a delight. I went to the opening of his band stand in the Millennium Park in Chicago in July, 2004...

I went up to Oxford last week to meet Susan and Dyan from China-Oxford Scholarship Trust and we had a lovely lunch at Turl Street Kitchen which is a relatively new outpost. I strongly commend it but book. www.turlstreetkitchen.co.uk 01865 264171

A, a dear friend with relatives in Syria and Lebanon, invited me to lunch last Saturday and we spent the time reviewing the Middle East. My sense was that the ruling class was already moving to Belarus and it would be good to know whether Asma al-Asad, the wife of the President of Syria, has already left the country. The Chinese restaurant itself was a delight and packed.

I went up to Oxford last Friday on the Oxford Tube from Victoria (a snip at £13 return) to meet Susan Yu and Dyan Sterling from the China Oxford Scholarship Fund. Twenty years ago a couple of Oxford Alumni in HK thought it a good idea to create a fund for Chinese students to study at Oxford which was very prescient....... We had a goodly chat and I said I would try and help their cause. (I was brought up in HK).

En route to hearing Ed Miliband speak I stopped off at The Barbican to see the Bauhaus exhibition (it closes on 12th August and is open most days till late).  This is a sumptuous exhibition and definitely a must-see. Bauhaus was born in Weimar in 1919 - home to Goethe and Schiller - it moved to Dessau in 1925 and then finally came to rest in Berlin where the Nazis closed it in 1933.  The artists, photographers, poets, architects and designers were the finest in the...

We went to see George (music) and Ira (lyrics) Gerswhin's Porgy & Bess last night at the Coliseum. America's best known opera was originally set in South Carolina but for this performance the Cape Town Opera's production was unsurprisingly set in Soweto though this made the fishing scenes more difficult to comprehend.  It was a most enjoyable evening.  

Cheltenham and then Woolhope and Putley It was a lovely sunny day yesterday so we travelled in hope that we would be able to see some cricket at Cheltenham College but on arrival we were told the outfield was too wet and play would start at the earliest after lunch. AS rain was due after lunch we hunched that we wouldn't see any cricket at all and legged it to Woolhope and then Putley in Herefordshire to meet up with more friends. We lunched at delightful Crown Inn at Woolhope before...

Last night I went to the launch party for Tom Levitt's latest book: Partners for Good at The Work Foundation close to St James's Park tube station. There was a goodly crowd for his launch. Go buy.....

I went to see the excellent BP Portrait Award 2012 exhibition at the NPG on Sunday. Go see.

We went to see Debbie Jones (vocals and acoustic guitar) and Justin Randall (piano and vocal) yesterday lunch time at Ronnie's and they and their band had the place stomping and jiving. What a great new-ish Jazz band. Go see.

I went to hear Julia's lecture on social networking at the Cass Business school on Wednesday. She spoke about five elements of networking: Weak Ties Loose Knowledge Global Green Room Marzipan Management & Curious Company I thought at the end of  a very entertaining lecture she might link them with an overarching theme but I was disappointed. I'm not sure there is an exact science (Tipping Point v Nudge et al) to networking but it is something I do rather too...

Deepak Verma from Pukkanasha Films dropped by to give me a still from the film of Bombay Charlie which he wrote and directed. Bombay Charlie is about a sect in Mumbai dedicated to Charlie Chaplin where everyone in the sect wears his bona fide clothes and accompanying walking stick every day.....it was hysterically funny when I saw it earlier in the year. Deepak held an auction last month of the photographs from the film to help him support his mother's charity.

I have been a supporter of the China Oxford Scholarship Fund for a decade or so and was a guest at their 20th anniversary lunch yesterday at Hailey, near Wallingford. Oxford University now has over 700 Chinese students doing a first or second degree in a second language.

Last night, I went to the "Treasure" showcase of London's leading innovative design jewellery talent at Somerset House. It was a knock-out and lots to buy......I was a guest of Arianna Cerrito and enjoyed her collection immensely. Go see it at www.ariannacerrito.com  

I had a lunch with my co-author, Colin Herridge at Daly's yesterday and we worked on two potential books.

Go see: British by Design 1948-2012 and Ballgowns: British Glamour since 1950 at the V&A. British by Design was like watching your life flash by - it starts with Coventry Cathedral (John Piper & Graham Sutherland though no Britten) moves into the Festival of Britain (but the Millennium Dome is missing for 2000: now there's a surprise) and onto the mini, punk rock, LP covers, Mary Quant and on and on to Concorde, the e-type and the Olympics (1948 is also...

It was an extraordinary scene yesterday on the River Thames but it would be have been so much easier if the boats had been numbered so we could have better understood their history as they passed us by. Maybe they'll remember that when the next one is organised in 2312. You felt for HM The Queen as she waited and waited for all the boats to finish........this was not well thought out. Her barge should have brought up the rear and then we should have had the short pageant. Funny in...

If you do nothing else this next few weeks go and see The Queen exhibition at the NPG. I'm no royalist but there are so many stimulating and quite stunning portraits of the Queen taken over the past 60 years - they act as a historical backdrop to the nation. 

I went as a late guest to the Summer Party on Wednesday night; what a ball........who was there? Grayson & Nancy, Simon Kelner (ex-Indy) and Susannah Simons (Radio 3) and a bevy of young things who might have been stretched to understand there was art for sale on the walls. Still a pretty feisty evening..........I even made the dance floor.............

There have been a number of recent articles and features about the return to favour of the fountain pen. I have used a fountain pen since I was eleven. I still use one, actually I still use two, both Parker Pens and I have a Conway Stewart and some 1950s Parkers as well. I had a beautiful blue ceramic Parker stolen from my study in the House of Commons which took me six years to find a replacement - an exquisite red ceramic - which I lost somehow and I thought I would...

Shelly Bancroft, artist and sculptor, completed a charcoal and pencil sketch of me yesterday after five sittings. The finished product will be up on my site shortly! Hope you like it!! 

I was a  guest of HRH The Queen yesterday at a garden party at Buckingham Palace. 

I went to see Goodbye First Love (Un amour de jeuness) at Curzon Mayfair last night along with 20 others which was a bit disappointing given its reviews. It lasts 1hr 50min‎‎ is rated 15‎‎ and is directed‎ by Mia Hansen-Løve with a main cast of Lola Créton, Olivier Yglesias and Greg Akcelrod.   It involves a puppy love story which blossoms and then is thwarted; inevitably as the film is spread over 8 years another lover arrives. Then, the

I went last night to see the photos from the movie Mumbai Charlie - which is about a Charlie Chaplin sect -at the Hempel Hotel and somehow was persuaded to buy one!! Hey ho.

Here is my perfect Saturday morning - before 1030: ** being shaved by Pepi in an old fashioned barber's in Regency Street, SW1 ** having the greatest breakfast at the Regency Diner (it is to die for) ** reading the Weekend FT - simply the best newspaper in the world ** completing the crosswords and sudoku in The Guardian

I'm a restless reader of non fiction. Daisy, my darter, asked me last year for my New Year's wish if I would read more fiction but after two in two months I reverted to type and re-started on my never ending piles.... This past week I have read: ** The Obamas: A Mission, A Marriage by Jodi Kantor which was pretty awful. I met Obama in his Chicago HQ's when fighting off Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in April, 2008. Jack, my son, is hoping to do the same when he spends a...

I went last night to hear Dan Hind speak about the paperback edition of his book: The Return of the Public which I read in November, 2010. He took on a lively audience at Shoreditch House (a relative of Soho House) who did not find favour with his conclusions.

I went to see the Damien Hirst exhibition at Tate Modern yesterday. The queues were mild for a bank holiday which might be a reflection that Hirst is not at the centre stage of modern art.  I found his work self centred and disappointing. I think this may be the era of Con-Art.

Either a clerk to the DCMS Select Committee or a superior leaked a story to the Mail on Sunday about the assiduous work of one of its members. This must be a first. The Speaker needs to hold an inquiry into the leaking and fire the person (s) responsible. 

I went to hear Clare Teal at Ronnie's last night having met her for the first time two weeks ago in her flat in Bath. She was on sparkling form as was the Ronnie Scott's jazz combo led by James Pearson, easily the best jazz pianist in Europe.

I was back at Ronnie Scott's last night to hear Georgie Fame, one of my favourite blues-jazz singer-songwriters. 

I also read this wonderful book earlier this week about the artist Edward Bawden and his lovely sketches, lino cuts and paintings of my favourite city. Edward's work reminds me of another favourite of mine: Edward Ardizzone.

On Sunday, I took Jack, my son, back to Bath University for the start of his incredibly short summer term. It appears as if he has almost four months off before the start of his second year in late September. Why not fit his three year course into two then??  Nonetheless, Bath was bathed in sunshine and looked wonderful.

Lat night I was a guest of the Spanish Ambassador at an awards ceremony to honour, unusually, two translators - Peter Bush (UK) and Ann McLean (Canada) - for their wonderful work over many years leading to more and more people reading Spanish novels in English (35% increase in translations: 87 authors published in 2011). Both received the Office of the Cross of the Order of Civil Merits.   

Last night, Daisy, Jack and Rupert joined me at the last performance of Chris Mullins's wonderful play based on two of his three diaries which have all appeared in the best sellers list. My children said afterwards it reminded them of much of our family conversations when I was an MP!!  It was immensely enjoyable.

After A Walk on Part, we all moved on to Ronnie Scott's for a beer and some jazz: it was a lovely way to end our Easter holiday......

Dale Chihuly is the finest glass architect in the world, indeed he may have been its major pioneer..... I have seen his exhibitions/work in Phoenix, Washington, DC, Seattle, Kew Gardens, the V&A and yesterday at the Halcyon Gallery in New Bond Street. Try and go and see it before it closes next week as it is simply amazing.

It is unusual for me not to buy a painting or a photograph when I go to Aldeburgh. I sought out Blurbs, Thompson's and the Aldeburgh Contemporary Arts all in the High Street plus the Peter Pears Gallery opposite 152. I saw a wonderful postcard of a painting by Alyson Sylvester of Aldeburgh and after investigation at Blurb's I found out she was Michael Pritt's sister (the owner of the Wentworth Hotel). I bought a print of it.

Aldeburgh prides itself as being Chelsea & Chips-on-Sea. The places is bulging with their tractors but the only newsagent had no FT this morning.

Maggie Hambling's Scallop a tribute to Benjamin Britten, our most famous composer of the 20th Century, is a joy to behold. It is situated on the beach just outside the natural boundary of Aldeburgh. She had to fight with all her might for it to be there at all. To Aldeburgh's continuing shame there has been no public recognition of Britten no doubt because he was gay. That there is still no monument to him is this seaside town is frankly scandalous.  

I went to Ronnie's last night for a jazz quiz and music session: most enjoyable.

Top Ten Art Museums 2011 1. Louvre 8,880,000 2. Met, NY 6,004,254 3. British Museum 5,848,534 4. National Gallery 5,253,216 5. Tate Modern 4,802,287 6. National Gallery, DC 4,392, 252 7. National Palace, Taipei (Taiwan), 3,849,577 8. Pompidou Centre 3,613,076 9. National Museum of Korea, Seoul 3,239,549 10. Musee D'Orsay, Paris 3,154,000 In the Top 20 Exhibitions 2011 not one UK museum is listed.

A NOTE BY THE DIRECTOR DITCHLEY 12/03 Cultural Diplomacy: does it work? 8 – 9 March 2012 Summary A diverse group had assembled, with the co-sponsorship of the John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress, to analyse what cultural diplomacy could offer in today’s world, the balance between promotion of national interest and increasing international understanding, and whether it could really work in helping to foster mutual engagement between different peoples. Firm and expert...

1. Dump the endless "Thank You's" from all the presenters 2. Add an extra female presenter 3. Put John Humphreys out to grass 4. Clone Evan Davies 5. Give Justin Webb a break 6. Dump Gary Richardson 7. Stop the ghetto slot for sport 8. Make Thought for the Day thought for the day and not some sad homily 9. Give traffic reports 10. Stop generalised weather forecasts which tell us nothing

I went to see the Hockney at the RA on Wednesday evening. I liked his charcoal sketches and iPad prints. He's overdone the large "murals" as well as the colours but my what an output. The RA should be congratulated on the overall design which was outstanding. 

I chaired an e.i. working dinner for 21 movers and shakers at Bloomberg's on Thursday evening. 

Last Thursday, I joined 29 others at Ditchley Park for a Ditchley Foundation three day lock in on Cultural Diplomacy under Chatham House rules. Nineteen countries were represented and we were split up into three groups: ** Cultural Diplomacy and the State (my group) ** Cultural Diplomacy and the NGO players ** International Comparisons & Globalisation The report will be posted in due at www.ditchley.co.uk  

I left Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire at Saturday lunchtime and drove to Portmeirion on the north west coast of Wales. I arrived just in time to hear (Lord) Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, converse with Sir Mark Walpole of the Wellcome Trust on the subject of Mass Over Matter in a Mass Age: Science and Medicine which was simply wonderful. Other highlights were: ** Steve Richards of the Indy doing his one man act ** Sarah Churchwell's 100mph's tour de force on The American Dream...

I was at City University this morning to give a lecture on cable and satellite television to M.Sc. students (would-be Science journalists).  

I went to hear the 6pm debate on What Are Universities For? at the RSA last night. Debate? Well not quite we had two speakers: Stefan Collini whose book of the same name has just been published by Penguin (The FT persuaded Chris Patton, Chancellor of Oxford University, to review it 10 days ago, giving two thirds of a page!) and Professor Paul O'Prey Vice Chancellor of Roehampton University. You can catch it all at www.thersa.org.   I asked i. How could there be over 150 centres...

I went to see this Exhibition at the Tate yesterday. There were 12 display rooms featuring the work of Ben Nicholson, Duncan Grant, Wyndham Lewis, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Graham Sutherland and David Hockney alongside other rooms labelled Picasso In Britain 1910-14, 1919, 1920-39, 1937-39 and 1945-60 plus one given over entirely to The Three Dancers.  We Brits took a long time to "get" Picasso and worse to understand his immense talents. When you see his work...

I went last night to the NPG to hear Joanna Trollope talk about her two essays she has written in the NPG book of essays in which famous writers have given a life to an unidentified portrait in the collection. There was then a Q&A and I asked her about whether she wrote with a fountain pen or used a laptop and she replied neither. She could write with any old biro but always, always on lined paper with a margin and only on the right hand page.   

John Newbigin is someone I have known for 15 years. We have had many conversations but most have lasted less than five minutes. Yesterday we sat down for an hour at my company HQ - the LooseBox in Horseferry Road and chewed the fat.  We share some common ground - C4, DCMS, Trinity Hospice and now Culture as he is running Creative & Cultural Skills for England and lecturing all over the world for the British Council. His new book is entitled Creativity, Money, Love and...

Yesterday, for nearly four hours, I kept as still as I could whilst artist Shelly Bancroft started on a portrait of my good self.....I've another session in two weeks time.......

The NPG should issue a health warning for visitors to the Lucien Freud Portraits for such is its popularity there are just too many people crammed into the small exhibition space. It really is time the NPG was given a much larger space which should also incorporate the Parliamentary portrait collection which is paid for by taxpayers but remains unseen (other than on its web site). This is unacceptable.  Anyway, it was hard to see all of Freud's portraits........ I'm not sure I...

Four years ago I proposed a Swale Film Festival in Sittingbourne and Sheppey and gave a donation to kick start it. Four years on and it has gone from strength to strength thanks to Ken Rowles's hard work. Check it out at: www.swalefilmfestival2012.org.uk  

Adam Sisman was a senior editor at George Allen & Unwin, in Museum Street, just by the British Museum, when I joined as the sports and leisure book editor in January, 1984. Since then, Adam has become a truly great Biographer - he started with AJP Taylor and more recently, Hugh Trevor Roper. His next will be John le Carre...... Anyway, there I was parked in my car, in Bath, when he walked by with his wife, Robyn, a fiction author (six books and counting). They had been living near...

Adam Lashinsky's book on Apple, whose shares touched $500 this week, is timely. Though the Steve Jobs "autobiography" remains in the best sellers - will it make a Hollywood biopic? - Lashinsky's pithy account is not frightened to call a spade a spade especially when confronting the maverick behaviour of Jobs.  

And suddently there were just two divas left - Aretha and Dionne - as Whitney passes away in a hotel room in her bath. How desperately sad - such a truly inspirational singer and actress.

The Baftas were really good last night with Stephen Fry in command - he mixed humour, insight and gravitas in the right proportions Tinker Taylor was unlucky to come up against The Artists and The Iron Lady. It is time Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh were knighted.

I went to see the beautifully landscaped A Dangerous Method starring Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein, Viggo Mortensen as a believable Freud and  Michael Fassbender as the rather sticky Carl Jung. It is not exactly an enjoyable film but Ms KK is brilliant and maybe she will find her rewards at the Baftas or The Oscars this year.    

I have had Stetsons (not those large hats seen in Spaghetti Westerns) for over ten years but I keep losing them. They are slightly larger than Andy Caps and I tend to leave them in taxis or cafes. I lost my last one somewhere in Toulon three weeks ago when filming Jonny Wilkinson. You can only find them in John Simons shop in Covent Garden and so I set off to find the shop and searched and searched and searched but alas my sense of direction was awry. At least that's what I thought until...

I tried lying in this morning but though it was freezing here in Westminster, I finally dressed just after 7am. As I was struggling to make my cup of Assam tea a bulb went off in my head.....go and have a shave and a haircut. It is an absolute luxury for a man to be shaved. I am lucky, near me is the finest barbers in London (Adriano's) and across the road from it is simply the best Diner in town (Regency Cafe). It's surprising how much better you feel when you've had Pepi shave you and...

The best time to see our wonderful national museums (surely now the best in the world?) is on Friday evenings when they are less crowded and where they let their collective hair down. Yesterday, I went to the V&A and there was a kind of DJ happening in the foyer which was half hearted if I'm honest. But there was still the Beaton Exhibition on HM The Queen. I didn't think much of Beaton per se and in this exhibition there are very few photographs of real tenderness. There were far...

Peter King, perhaps our greatest alto saxophonist, played last night with his band at the V&A Cafe. The place was heaving and people arriving late were disappointed - you guessed I was one of them as I chose the Beaton before the jazz......next time, next time. Still, it was good to stand and hear the great man though the acoustics aren't made for jazz......

Last night I went to see The Descendants starring George Clooney (and others!). I found it terribly moving and had used up a box of tissues well before the end. It is a family tragi-comedy set in Hawaii which touches every sinew - a troublesome pre-teen and a late teenager, a husband and wife who have let their relationship slip; a wife who is dying because of a boating accident and an extended family who could become filthy rich. I won't spoil it for you but go and see...

I have started to go to the late Friday night galleries because the crowds are less and it's just a lovely way of easing yourself into the weekend.  So last night at Tate Britain I saw Don McCullin's Landscapes which were a welcome escape from his usual war torn imagery and then onto Migrations which was decidely bitty. www.tate.org.uk

30th January 1649 King Charles 1 lost his head 1948 Gandhi was assassinated 1965 Sir Winston Churchill died 1972 Bloody Sunday - the Bogside massacres - in Derry

On Wednesday of last week I went to see the colourful funeral cars exhibition at the Festival Hall. They were good but not quite as good as the ones I last saw three years ago in Seattle!

Finally, I managed to see The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep. It was an excellent film with a number of outstanding performances but like many others I was saddened at the way she was portrayed.....notwithstanding that she was one of the reasons I entered politics. 

I have been asked by the Ditchley Foundation to spend three days in March looking at the issues around Cultural Diplomacy. I have been a fan of Joe Nye's work on Soft Power and I am really looking forward to the event.  

I'm a member at the V&A and one day I shall walk all eight miles of their galleries!!  Today, I saw the Al Weiwei exhibition which was uncomfortable as he was destroying ancient artefacts and replenishing them in a contemporary environment. Anne Lennox's House was next and I saw her great costumes, awards, photos, charitable work and naturally her music. She tries almost too hard to want to be recognised but that essential hunger is what has made her great. I then dipped

I am also a member at the National Portrait Gallery and this morning I went first to see the Taylor Wessing Photographic competition winners. This has been an annual exhibition for some time - I am little hazy as to how long.  I also tried to have a look at the newest commissions but the NPG is busy putting its Lucien Freud exhibition together so sadly the area was closed. But hey, Lucien Freud? 

I went to see Margin Call at a private showing at Somerset House last night (it has been well reviewed today in The Guardian). The film is about the close call "collapse" of a NY bank in the first crisis in 2008. It's edgy and frightening realistic but may have come too late to influence the Oscars. There were very strong performances by Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons and Zachary Quiinto. It feels like the bookend to Wall Street.

I went to see The Artist this afternoon which has had a lot of wind lately in the media and that's partly because it is a black and white silent movie. The last one I saw was Abel Gance's Napoleon epic  - which then lasted five and a half hours - at the Barbican back in 1982.... The Artist is slightly drawn out but the ending is quite amusing. It might just score at The Oscars. 

The Leonardo at the National has drawn record crowds and till receipts for the Exhibition and subsequent purchases in the book shops have topped £60k a day so at this rate the overall income from it will be around £5.5m plus sponsorship from Credit Suisse. As to the exhibition itself, I found it disappointing. The sketches are so hard to see (and so small) and the bigger portraits such as Christ as Salvator Mundi and The Madonna of the Yarnwinder seem to be less by him and more by other...

To wind down from Christmas I went to Ronnie Scott's on Boxing Day to listen to Gill Manley's tribute to Nina Simone. I first heard Nina at Ronnie's on New Year's eve back in the late 1980s.  

Before going on to spend Christmas Day with Rosa, my God daughter and her wondrous family in Cambridge, I stopped off at St Andrew's Church, Histon for their very amusing Family service (jokes included).

I have to admit given it seems to be harder to find the present I was really fortunate this year!!! Books Veg by River Cottage bod Hugh F-W Private Eye: the First 50 Years World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson & Janice Robinson Music Amy Winehouse: Lioness - Hidden Treasures  Rebecca Ferguson: Heaven  Wine A Vine to grow - loved it  

London Chamber Brass@NPG I went to the NPG last night to hear the outstanding LCB who are on Classic FM this evening at 1800. They played an outstanding rendition of White Christmas which was lost a little in the small auditorium. Check them out at www.londonchamberbrass.co.uk

Yesterday evening I went to see with Daisy, my daughter, the film: My Week with Marilyn starring an outstanding Michelle Williams. The script was thin and we gave it 5/10 though there were some solid performances from Zoe Wanamaker, Eddie Redmayne and Ken Branagh. Directed by Simon Curtis.

As it was my birthday yesterday, I took my children, Daisy and Jack to Bibendum at Michelin House. I cannot think of a more relaxed place to have Sunday lunch with such an excellent wine list and a menu to die for. The chef kindly endorsed my pavlova with a chocolate version of "Happy Birthday"!!

I went last night to the John Maynard Keynes room at Birkbeck College, Gordon Square for a talk by Amir Amirani, an award winning documentary maker. He is trying to find the funding for a film about all those anti-war (Iraq invasion) marches across the world in time for the tenth anniversary of the illegal occupation.

Michael Lewis should be floated on Wall Street. Almost everything he has written has either been ahead of the curve - The New New Thing & The Blind Side - or summed up an era like Liar's Poker. In 2003, he wrote Moneyball about the Oakland A's 2002 season in which they scored a record 20 straight wins but still failed to qualify for the World Series. Hollywood does baseball films better than it does rugby or soccer viz The Natural, Field of Dreams & The Babe....

I went to see Deepak Verma's new film: Mumbai Charlie at Somerset House yesterday.   ‘In the middle of India’s arid landscape of Gujarat, Vijay, a businessman from Mumbai comes across a cult-like society which is obsessed with and prays to Charlie Chaplin. His experience of them changes his life forever, as he learns to cultivate a more emotionally and aware sense of being.’ It was a very funny short film: to think that Chaplin met Gandhi and knew him but Gandhi had never heard...

Real Venice is a fund raising project of the charity: Venice in Peril. 14 photographers were commissioned to take photos of Venice and the hope is these will be sold to help the cause. I didn't enjoy the exhibition. Giving photographers a free for all to shoot whatever they wanted left me thinking that I didn't really care less for them or for the cause. It is true Venice is sinking. Venice receives millions of tourists a year who pay excessive rates at hotels, in bars and for...

Somerset House has undergone a quiet revolution with its ice rink, British Fashion Week and the opening of bars and restaurants plus a host of exhibitions which do not gain the coverage they deserve. One such is Forgotten Spaces on till 29th January 2012 which is a showcase of 28 innovative design projects for the regeneration of neglected spaces across London. Go see it: it will stimulate your senses especially as it is housed in one of Somerset House's own lost space!!

I met Syl Tand the founder & CEO of hip guide yesterday: check out her site www.hipguide.com it's a lot of fun.

It was such a lovely day yesterday I spent it in Aldeburgh and whilst there looked at two houses and a flat. I saw a redstart with its orange tail. One day I shall live here. 

After Remembrance Sunday, I went to the V&A to see the 50th Anniversary exhibition of Private Eye and was pleased to see on video the craft of Ken Pyne. a great cartoonist. I then spent an hour at the Postmodernism: Style & Subversions 1970-1990 exhibition which was beautifully curated.

Once again I went to the MfY Prom last night at the Royal Albert Hall and once again it was simply outstanding.

I attended a London RSA lecture at the RSA last night given by Sir Michael Arthur, formerly our High Commissioner in India. (As an aside I do wish we could call our High Commissioners "Ambassadors" which is what they are; it is silly to continue the High Commission nonsense at the FCO just to placate a crumbling Commonwealth which matters less and less to us every day). Sir Michael's talk was entitled "Elephants on the Move: How much will India shape the 21st century?" and his answer...

I went to see Driving Miss Daisy last night. It stars the simply wonderful Vanessa Redgrave as Miss Daisy and the equally outstanding James Earl Jones, as Hoke Coleburn, her black driver. It was always a play before it became a film and this transfer from Broadway is simply wonderful. Go see.  

We held our annual dinner at the Worshipful Company of Innholders' Hall on Wednesday - Simon Hughes MP was our guest speaker. Yesterday I was back at the Hospice to review how we introduce music therapy and this morning I went to another meeting which looked at our overall Comms package. This afternoon, I am visiting a software team who handle eBay accounts.

At the Comment Awards on Thursday morning, neither The Guardian nor The Indy won a single award rather they were shared 4-4 by the FT and The Times.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24000535-standard-wins-commentary-awards.do    http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/times-and-financial-times-dominate-comment-awards/s2/a546432/   http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/10/media-commentator-awards-wilby   http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/oct/20/robert-peston-media-events-conferences?newsfeed=true   http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/wire/8312...

Editorial Intelligence announces The Comment Awards 2011 www.commentawards.com www.editorialintelligence.com London, 20th October, 2011 The media, analysis and networking business (www.editorialintelligence.com), has announced 2011. In their third year, The Comment Awards online commentators and their editors over the The winners of the 15 categories, and the Chair’s Choice award special breakfast at RIBA, London this morning in front of shortlisted candidates, category...

There was a goodly audience at the Curzon Mayfair last night to see WoodY Allen's much trailed film: Midnight in Paris. I went with Daisy, my daughter and given the plethora of Lebanese restaurants in and around Shepherd Market, we settled for a snack beforehand. Woody Allen prodigious film oeuvre (he is 75) began in 1965 with What's New Pussycat? (he wrote the initial screenplay) and he has subsequently produced almost a film a year. I remember him first as a stand up...

Last night I went to hear Melvyn Bragg, Labour Peer, author and media man, give a lecture entitled: The Impact of the King James Bible 1611-2011 which was based on his new book: The Book of Books: The Radical Impact of the King James Bible 1611-2011 which was published back in April. Lord Bragg spoke for just on 75 minutes with a PA system which echoed and so we struggled to hear his lecture clearly which was bitterly disappointing. However, it was enough to make me order...

TOP 10 UNIVERSITIES: a first for CalTech Rank / Institution 1. California Institute of Technology =2. Harvard University =2. Stanford University 4. University of Oxford 5. Princeton University 6. University of Cambridge 7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 8. Imperial College London 9. University of Chicago 10. University of California, Berkeley www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings

The Livery companies of the Mercers and the Information Technologists came together last Wednesday at the new Hammersmith Academy which they both have agreed to sponsor to the tune of £3m and £1m respectively. The Academy is wonderfully designed and at present just has Year 7 and 12 students. Through member ship of the ICT Livery Company I am a small donor of the Hammersmith Academy and have agreed to mentor a couple of Year 12 students.

Tate Liverpool's Retrospective on Rene Magritte (it runs until 16th October 2011) is a must-see exhibition and if you book your rail ticket early enough you can still do a day return from London for under £60. There is much to see that is new including his posters, photographs, home movies, commercial art and letters. Moreover, seeing his work as a whole demonstrated at least to me the profound influence he has had on modern advertising and on on our current crop of artists. He...

Last Friday week I took a trip down memory lane first by train from Fenchurch Street to Chalkwell and then via Jim Harrison's house (my PE teacher) to Westcliff CHS, my first secondary school, which I attended from 1961-66. I was the main speaker at the Old Boys annual dinner.  Two of my class/sports mates - Ron Curtis and Ian Fowler - went out of their way to attend and we spent half an hour remembering our golden age! The past isn't what it used to be.  It was a...

I took Jack, my son, to see Tinker, Tailor on Sunday afternoon to a packed Cineworld in the Fulham Road. All the hype was true: it was an exceptional film, beautifully shot, wonderfully scored with a host of outstanding performances especially Gary Oldman (who may well win an Oscar nomination) as George Smiley. The story would be familiar to those old enough to recall the book by John le Carre published in June, 1974 which was adapted for BBC television in 1979 (and starred Alec Guinness...

I went to the newly opened Hammersmith Academy (Years 7 and 12) yesterday to sign up as a Business Mentor; the building is to die for. The official opening will be on 28th September 2011 and I have made a small contribution through the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (our members have raised £1m for them).  

Bleary-eyed 30 or so of us representing the Commentariat met this morning at Webber Shandwick to finalise the short list for this year's Comment Awards organised by Editorial Intelligence. I was a judge on two panels: Mainstream Media Blogger & Columnist of the Year whilst we were all asked to decide on the newspaper with the Best Comment Pages. My lips are sealed but the short-list should be out later today!

The Comment Awards 2011 - Category Shortlists   Commentariat of the Year – Sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover Shortlist: Matthew d’Ancona – The Daily Telegraph Suzanne Moore – The Guardian Peter Oborne – The Daily Telegraph   Best Comment Pages Shortlist: Financial Times The Guardian The Times   Best Online Comment Site Shortlist: Mumsnet Reuters Breakingviews Coffee House @ The Spectator   Columnist of the Year Shortlist: Peter...

I went to see Jane Eyre last night at the Kensington Odeon. London streets were on meltdown for most of the day - there were 9.11 services everywhere leading to closures, there was something in Whitehall so Parliament Square was blocked for an hour and then there was a street festival on the Embankment for most of the afternoon. Transport for London needs to have a state of the art traffic web site which updates every five minutes and links into mobiles and gsm systems. Maybe they could just...

I went last night to Ronnie Scott's to hear James Pearson and Dave Newton (two grands on the stage) pay homage to Oscar Peterson. "House Full" signs were up early and the crowd had a ball. It was a joy to be there.  It's on again tonight at 2030.

Heather Brooke's new book "The Revolution Will be Digitised: Dispatches From the Information War" is essentially an aide memoire into what has happened in our digital world over the past two years. Nonetheless it is a cracking read.

Tom Bingham was our most senior Law Lord and his book shines a brilliant light into what exactly do we mean by the term "The Rule of Law". This is a precise and intelligent read and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Pedro Almodovar is the finest Spanish director of films since the heady days of Luis Bufnuel. His latest film: The Skin I Live In stars Antonio Banderas and new muse Elena Anaya, though she was in his film of 2002: Talk to Her. It explores much of the themes of previous films and is an acknowledgement to a past movie entitled Live Flesh (a lose adaption of Ruth Rendell's 1997 novel of the same name). Skin covers: a  sex change, voyeurism, brutal sex,...

From wikipedia: The Secret in Their Eyes (Spanish: El secreto de sus ojos) is a 2009 Argentine crime thriller film, directed by Juan José Campanella, based on Eduardo Sacheri's novel La Pregunta de Sus Ojos (The Question in Their Eyes). The film stars Ricardo Darín and Soledad Villamil in a joint production of Argentine and Spanish companies. The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, making Argentina the first country in Latin America to win it...

From wikipedia: The Lincoln Lawyer is a 2011 American thriller film adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Connelly, starring Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy and Marisa Tomei. The film is directed by Brad Furman, with a screenplay written by John Romano. I saw it last week and can recommend it. Here's the plot: Criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller (McConaughey) operates around Los Angeles County out of a Lincoln Town Car. Haller has spent most...

The number of books on Google grows and grows - I can count six in my collection and now here is a seventh.... Douglas Edwards was the 59th employee at Google; he lucked out and walked away with $millions when he left five years ago. This is his story.

The Pursuit of Italy by David Gilmour is an extraordinary book by one of the UK's great authors; and if you are only half interested in what made Italy (eventually) into a nation state (it is celebrating its 150th year, this year) then this is the book for you. As someone who visits Italy regularly (twice this year) I couldn't put it down; it is so readably and so full of nuggets and joy. Go read.

I drove up to Aldeburgh yesterday to check in at the Thompson Gallery sale of two artists - Michael Sanders and Emma Williams. I'd bought a large Sanders's of a misty beach scene soon looking back at Aldeburgh from Thorpeness last year and was tempted by an Emma Williams painting of the famous Chip Shop but when I called earlier last week it had already gone. On walking round the Gallery - and to my delight - there was another painting of the Chip shop still unsold...

Every Monday morning I receive a stream of stats from my server company about how my relatively new web site is doing. My old site www.derekwyattexmp.co.uk topped 20,000+ weekly visits (not hits) but eventually settled at around 15,000 which made it the most visited web site for a Parliamentarian. This site is gradually improving - last week we had 1380 visitors who accessed 4080 pages.

I went to see Pinter's "Betrayal" last night at the Comedy Theatre. I sense I briefly drifted off in one of the "pauses" ..... I'm not you ever enjoy a Pinter play but there was a goodly performance by Kristin Scott Thomas, the sets were sparse matching the play itself. But it did feel very 1970s!  

I was President of St Luke's College, Exeter between 1970-71 before it was subsumed by Exeter University. I was grateful for the three years I had there and over the past decade or so I have given two small donations to help Sport flourish in the past and last month to the new Business Centre which opens shortly. Many years later I won a place at St Catherine's College, Oxford to read for an M.Sc. It was beyond my wildest dreams that I should find

Jack. my son, and YT went to see Senna, the movie last night at the Curzon Soho. This wonderful film has been directed sensitively by new kid on the block, Asif Kapadia. Senna won three world championships and more F1 races than anyone. He was captain courageous but lamented even on the day he was killed at the new love affair with technology which had taken the "driving" element away from F1. Even, if you're not a racing buff, this is a wonderful portrait of a decent man whose legacy has

Monday: we learned that the late,murdered, Millie Dowler's phone was hacked Tuesday: we learned 7/7 victims and widows of our heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan have had their phones hacked too  Wednesday: David Cameron was toast at PMQs Thursday: News of the World closed I'm sure the rush is on first for a book but much more interestingly would be a film commission. Why not Four Days that Shook the World?

On Thursday, I chaired another eiClub Supper at the Groucho Club. WE were meeting two hours after the News of the World closure blew out the rest of the news...........We also talked about the repercussions on Europe and the euro if Greece was to renege on its new debt agreement. www.editorialintelligence.com

Last night, I went to see the premiere of Holy Rollers, starring Jesse Eisenberg, fresh from his award winning performance in Social Network. Holy Rollers is about the closed community of Hasidic Jews in NY and how just occasionally it can be contaminated. I won't spoil it for you because you need to go and see it! www.holyrollersuk.com

Andrew Lansley, Health SoS, commissioned a Palliative Care Funding Review Report and it was published on Friday morning. You can find it here: www.palliativecarefunding.org.uk

The first London New Zealand film festival was underway last night at The Baribican and continues over the next few days. Opening the Festival was Boy written and directed by the acclaimed, award winning, Taika Waititi. I was a guest at the opening party and film. For other films see www.barbican.org.uk 

I am the proud Dad of two cracking children. Last week whilst in NY, my daughter calls, she has gained a First in her degree..............fantastic, must take after her mother.

Editorial Intelligence's Names Not Numbers - www.namesnotnumbers.com - two day fest described by Mrs Moneypenny in the Financial Times as "intellectual Viagra" finished late Tuesday at BBC.com's NY offices. Indeed, it was Mrs Moneypenny who brought the curtain down with her own one woman show which was a sell out at Edinburgh last year. The range of speakers was stunning and included Seth Godin Pat Mitchell Abigail Disney John Gapper Steve Bratt P.J.Crowley Nina Planck Ken...

For the Names Not Numbers two day conference in Manhattan earlier this week, I stayed at the relatively new Mondrian Hotel in Crosby Street, SoHo (it was opened in February). It's a curious mix of boutique meets muddle. Downstairs the breakfast room which doubles up for lunch and dinner is a light, thoughtful space but clearly was an after thought as the "bar" and overspill dining facilities were small. noisy (not even ear plugs could diminish the sound) and poorly lit. In the lifts...

I flew Virgin Atlantic to Newark Airport in New Jersey (a first) using my air miles. Air Miles are of the great deceits of our age. You fly with an airline, you collect their reward points and then you hope some day to have enough to maybe give your children a "free" flight or even yourself. That's where the fun starts. You cannot book any flight: indeed you cannot book most flights; you then have to book at least two or three months ahead to benefit as if anyone knows their...

Editorial Intelligence's Names Not Numbers two day conference hits New York tomorrow. The English board members are meeting this morning for breakfast then I will pop in to the Apple shop in Greenwich Village before brunching with old friends. Here in SoHo the sun is smiling.

I have had a soft spot for Mihir Bose ever since I published A Maidan View in 1984 - about cricket in India. It is a cracker of a read. I subsequently commissioned him to write another cricket book Cricket Around the Boundary about the people who make up a first X1 - touts, ground staff, media players et al. I was trying to see if we could make some inroads into CRL James' epic Beyond the Boundary which I thought we did. He also did a biography of Michael Grade for me. Mihir hails from...

I have been reading The Guardian for over forty years but I am beginning to wonder if it is worth my while renewing my subscription. Where has the photojournalism gone now that Eamon McCabe is no longer its picture editor? Where are the real stories in their Comment pages which in themselves are becoming too predictable? Has the change in newspaper format to a Le Monde style restricted it somehow? Has the editorial team been there too...

Why do so many countries waste so much money buying space in Venice to show their art when they could run their own Biennales? Why haven't the UK Art aficionados done just that? It can't be because they all want to spend a few days in Venice at inflated prices both in the hotels and in the restaurants? It must be because they are all on expenses as Joe Citizen simply couldn't afford the costs. Mind you hardly any Joe Citizens actually go to the Venice Biennale. Q. How many paying...

About Professor Putnam Robert D. Putnam is Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard, and Visiting Professor, University of Manchester has written more than a dozen books, including Bowling Alone and Making Democracy Work, both among the most cited publications in the social sciences in the last half century.    In 2005 he initiated The Saguro Seminar: Civic Engagement In America, an ongoing initiative aimed at developing recommendations for strategies to help...

I went to the pre-auction party at Bloomsbury to look at a couple of photographs I was keen on - one on Astaire (a Bert Hardy) and another on Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore (Terry O'Neill). The Astaire featured Audrey Hepburn but alas nothing from "Dancing Shoes".  

It's been an Editorial Intelligence kind of week: Monday: Board meeting Tuesday: Comment Club breakfast thought pieces at Somerset House Thursday (tonight): I'm chairing our Comment Club's dinner www.editorialintelligence.com

I went to the V&A to see:   "The Cult of Beauty - the Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900" (until 17th July) and curated by Stephen Calloway When I read for my first degree at the Open University back in the mid- seventies, I studied the history of art and architecture from 1850 and for my dissertation I chose the work of Thomas Jeckyll, the Norwich based, architect and designer, then still largely unknown. (Thomas Jeckyll by Susan Weber Soros and Catherine Arbuthnott...

There is another pleasure when you have to take an eight hour flight, as I did last week, to Doha and that is being able to catch up on "Films Missed"! Normally, any flight over five hours is a signal for me to spend my time asleep but more recently as the in-flight entertainment has become more and more bespoke I have enjoyed watching those films I have missed. I watched the rather slow moving and somewhat staid "Burlesque" but was then riveted with "The Fighter" which was a...

I went to Fidelity HQ's on Tuesday evening in the Ciot of London for the launch of the new University of Exeter's Business School. See: www.exeter.ac.uk/business-school

There was a small gathering of the English clans in Monticiano, up in the hills south west of Siena, this morning to watch the Royal wedding on television. Curious locals wondered what the fuss was but we had a goodly time watching the beautiful event unfold.

I have been a member of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists for almost a decade (and with it I am allowed, as a Freeman of the City of London, to drive my sheep across the Tower Bridge for free). A few years ago some very brave WCIT members persuaded us to adopt an Academy and we then agreed to raise £1 million for the new Hammersmith Academy which opens in September and on Wednesday, at our Hall in St Bartholomew's Close, thirty or so members met to better...

I went so see Beeban Kidron’s wonderful Storyville film about the devadasi system, Sex, Death and the Gods on Monday evening at Somerset House. I missed it when it was shown on BBC4 (why not BBC2??) earlier this year.

I attended the Editorial Intelligence Comment Conference yesterday on Enterprise and was a panellist in the final session. www.editorialintelligence.com www.commentconference.com

Editorial Intelligence held another of their successful soiree events on Wednesday evening at the Commonwealth Club when a panel chaired by Peter Yorke discussed the place of Royalty. The panellist included fiesty Rachel johnson, Peter Tatchell - the star turn and national institution, the Ambassador of Sweden, Sarah Sands and Peter Kellner (YouGov). It was a goodly event. www.editorialintelligence.com

From The Art Newspaper The Top 5 Exhibitions 1. Hasegawa Tohaku at the Tokyo National Museum Total visitors: 292,526 average daily figure of 12,116 2. Post Impressionism at the National Art Center, Tokyo 777,551 and a daily of 10,757 3. Designing the Lincoln Memorial, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 2,926,232 and a daily of 9,290 4. Hasegawa Tohaku at the Kyoto National Museum 244,347 and a daily of 9,098 5. Van Gogh at the National Art Center,...

If it’s Friday evening it’s normally a film. I seem to be replacing my traditional Sunday early evening slot with Fridays……..and this time I went to see Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau… a strange film. It was if Hollywood backers were trying to find a way of marrying reality with fantasy. The reality was that the Matt Damon character was a young white version of Obama hoping to win a Senate seat in NY and Emily Blunt’s wondrous heart. And up till then it was a fun movie but...

I caught Fair Game yesterday evening. It is a film about the appallingness of the Bush administration. Go see it.  www.imdb.com: Fair Game (I) (2010)   108 min  -  Biography | Drama | Thriller   -  11 March 2011 (UK) CIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is allegedly leaked by the government as payback for an op-ed article her husband wrote criticizing the Bush administration. Director:...

BBC World recorded an interview for their The Forum programme when we were at Portmeirion last week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00f5w18   Or you can download a podcast from Itunes or http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/forum It includes a question from YT.............

Today's FT Magazine has a goodly write up by James Crabtree of the event last weekend: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/58ff33b0-49f2-11e0-acf0-00144feab49a.html#axzz1GN5WyRPJ

I went to the sale of Edward Ardizzone's paintings, watercolours, drawings, original book illustrations and prints yesterday evening at Gallery 27, 27 Cork Street, Mayfair. I missed the illustration I wanted to buy of The Boat to Southend by a whisker and though I looked at all the others I had gone with the intent of purchasing it! Drat. There was also On The Beach (Sheerness) which went for £1200. I have been interested in Ardizzone's work ever since we purchased a house he had...

I went to the first part of the BSAC Film Festival at the Rutherford Conference Centre this morning. Amanda Nevill, Director of the BFI and Adrian Wootton, CEO, of Film London gave us a flavour of how the Film industry was to be re-organised following the closure of UK Film. Then Ben Keen, Chief Analyst and VP of Screen Digest presented a talk on where our leisure spend is likely to go over the next four years.

I went to see Brighton Rock. I was tempted by the book and the original film but sadly this version wasn't worth the effort. You know when a film is scraping the barrel when it has to use sea swells and moody music to jack up a disappointing script.

Three cheers for Hollywood they more or less voted for the right films in this year's Oscars........ The King's Speech hardly stuttered once it had been released and this word-of-mouth film won four Oscars including best actor for (Sir) Colin Firth. Natalie Porter deservedly won Best Actress for her part in Bleak Swan aka as Black Swan.   For a full list of 2011 Oscar nominees and winners, visit the official site of the Academy Awards. Major Categories: Best Supporting...

Editorial Intelligence's third Names Not Numbers weekend kicks off this Friday at Portmeirion. NNN also launches in New York in June and Mumbai in November. www.namesnotnumbers.com

From: www.bbc.co.uk Enigma genius Alan Turing papers saved for the nation Alan Turing is credited with a key role in breaking wartime German codes A last minute donation from the National Heritage Memorial Fund has saved the papers of the computing genius Alan Turing for the nation. The collection of scientific papers and material relating to Turing's work on wartime codebreaking was in danger of going abroad. He was one of the founding fathers of modern computing and a key...

127 Hours is Danny Boyle's latest film starring James Franco and Amber Tamblyn and is about Aron Ralston's true life story of being trapped by a fallen boulder in an isolated in a canyon in Utah which leads him to cut off his arm with a penknife......

Wall Street 2 Director Oliver Stone with Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf Gordon Gekko emerges from eight years in prison and seeks to re-create his fortune as a high roller. Sounds kind of trite and unworthy but the script is slick and the pace of the movie is equally fast and there are enough twists and turns to make it worth watching.

Last night I was taken to the Curzon Mayfair to see Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Biutiful based on the under class and human trafficked in Barcelona. There was a brilliant portrayal of the main character by Javier Bardem surely a shoe-in to win the Oscar for best overseas film performance. The film is bleak, black, bawdy and beautiful. Go see it.

I went to see the Portuguese Nun (English sub titles) at the ICA last night. I felt it was two hours too long.

Last night, I tripped along to Pictet & Cie: www.pictet.com at 120 London Wall for a drinks party to welcome them to the Editorial Intelligence's family of sponsors: www.editorialintelligence.com for our Names Not Numbers symposium at Portmeirion in March.   (I am a small shareholder in Editorial Intelligence and on the Board).

I went to see Black Swan at a packed early evening showing at the Curzon Mayfair yesterday. As we were shuffling out of the cinema it seemed like we'd all been at a funeral that had gone terribly wrong.  There's lot to admire about the film itself - great sets, sensational acting, wonderful colours - but at the end you were left wondering whether it actually worked as a film. I know the critics have largely given it a **** or ***** rating but I wasn't so sure....

I went to see the King's Speech on Sunday afternoon; usually when I go at this time (around 5.30pm) any central London cinema is more or less empty but not for this film where the pre-publicity and word of mouth has made it the must-see movie for the new year and there were queues for tickets stretching outside the Odeon in Leicester Square.  There will be lots more awards other than the single Golden Globe to Colin Firth for his masterful performance as Bertie (King George Vl). What

I moved on from the Fabian Conference to the Tate Modern to see the Gauguin (again) before it closed tomorrow, the Wei Wei's art installation of ceramic sunflowers which I love (again) and finally the Surrealist's Poetry & Dreams exhibition especially the work of Tanguy, Giacometti, Ernst and Dali.  

CAABU Election to Executive   I was re-elected.....

I caught the Venice: Canaletto & His Rivals exhibition at The National this morning which closes on Sunday as does the Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain. It will be another lifetime before these paintings and photographs will be seen again in the UK so if you are free on Sunday do try and see them. Whilst at The National there is also the Bridget Riley and, as interesting, the Ben Johnson Liverpool, Zurich and London landscapes which are quite sensational.

CAABU - Council for the Advancement of Arab British Understanding www.caabu.org I have been associated with CAABU since June, 1997 and for the past 3 years I have sat on its Executive Board. It is election time again and I have thrown my hat in the ring!!

King Fahad Academy, East Acton www.thekfa.org.uk I was a guest of the Headmistress yesterday.

New Year's Resolutions for 2011 ** read more Fiction ** cook from recipes taken from a River Cottage book - a birthday present (!) ** improve my health (bad year 2010) ** travel more ** finish my book on Politics: Events Dear Boy, Events ** make the final of the RWC 2011 in NZ

In between finishing off my next book on the Rugby World Cup 2011 (with co-author Colin Herridge), I was able to read the following books: ***** The New Machiavelli by Jonathan Powell; a Christmas cracker must-read for all politicos ** Five Days to Power by Rob Wilson MP; slightly boring assessment of the Tory-Lib Dem pact back in May, 2010 ** After the Lemons: the Glory Days of Bath rugby by Kevin Coughlan, Peter Hall & Colin Gale; volume two takes us from 1965 to 1996 and...

I went to see Mike Leigh's recently released (5/11/10) film: Another Year starring David Bradley and Jim Broadbent on Saturday. It is split into the four seasons and revolves around a blissfully happy couple and their family and work colleagues. It lasted 2 hours 9 minutes and it makes you concentrate very hard indeed despite the usual free flowing, ad libbing script. The camera shots are held just that extra few seconds to take you inside each personality. In the end optimism just defeats...

I was keen to see the Gauguin Exhibition this morning (on until 16/01/11) but had completely forgotten about Al Weiwei's 100 million ceramic Sunflower Seeds and was floored by them.   The Gauguin entrance fee was £15 each and was overpriced. I am beginning to think that Exhibition prices are edging towards £20 a) Because of the scandalous cuts to the Arts from the coalition government (though the DCMS ministerial team has no Lib Dems) and b) because the Tate would...

The amazing jazz pianists and composer Dave Brubeck who is 90 today (a good month to have a birthday!) had a special BBC 2 Arena programme with Clint Eastwood and others. See it here: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wbp64/Arena_Dave_Brubeck_In_His_Own_Sweet_Way/  

Daisy and I went to see this play on Saturday evening at the Vaudeville in The Strand. We booked the day before so there are some tickets available for every performance and as we booked directly through the theatre rather than through online agencies where the prices were higher we bought a better deal...... An ideal Husband stars Samantha Bond, Alexander Hanson and Eliot Cowan. The play is in four acts and the first two are slow and slight but the final two after the interval cause...

It was back to jazz again last night when I went to listen to Sarah McGuinness at The Pigalle Club in Piccadilly performing music from "Believe - the Eddie Izzard Story." www.thepigalleclub.com

The Alan Turing papers for sale at Christie's next week fit the Waverley criteria as listed on the DCMS web site. Thus: Department for Culture, Media and Sport The Waverley criteria History Is it so closely connected with our history and national life that its departure would be a misfortune? Aesthetics Is it of outstanding aesthetic importance? Scholarship Is it of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history?

The 2010 London Jazz Festival was underway yesterday with a host of concerts but the key one was at the Festival Hall last night when the Mahotella Queens and Hugh Masekela wowed an ecstatic audience. The "Queens" have been performing since 1964 and they haven't lost any of their enthusiasm or polish. They were a great warm up act and thrilled us. Hugh was at his magical best preferring to sing as much as play (with a great band) and he had us on our feet dancing and...

Westminster came to a stand still this morning at 11 o'clock (for the right reasons after yesterday's student demo) as the Abbey and Parliament observed a two minute silence to remember the end of WW1, a war to end all wars, except that 20 years later we were at it again. Fred, my grandfather lied about his age and joined up to fight in WW1 for the Artillery and was in Naval Intelligence in WW2. My Dad joined up at 19 to spend his "university" years (1939-45) away from his family in...

Martin Bright, Jude Kelly, Nii Sackey and David Worthington were our e.i. breakfast panel this morning at the Royal Festival Hall (chaired by John Wilson of BBC Radio 4's Front Row) where we chewed over the current savage cuts in the Arts thanks to the Tory Government's cuts package. (Over night, Tory led Somerset CC had voted to end all funding of the Arts.)  Once again it was another packed house for the 0830 start (despite the awful weather) and there was a pretty lively debate. I

Karen Newman's new sculpture of Dean William Vincent was unveiled yesterday afternoon to mark the bi-centenary when the "Fields" became enclosed (and then ultimately renamed Vincent Square after the Dean). You can view it at 56 Vincent Square, London SW1. Dean Vincent was Dean at Westminster Abbey from 1802-1815. Karen's work can be viewed at www.karen-newman.com   The Vincent Square Residents Association's web site is www.vincentsq-residents.org.uk     

The Music for Youth Schools Prom last night at the RAH was simply sensational. There's another two nights to go but a packed house saw acts from all over England - an 800 strong choir from Slough (14 schools) to a 14 year old female singer who wowed the place to bands and anything else you could imagine. Broken society? Not here.......... www.royalalberthall.com and www.mfy.org.uk 

The Arbor is a film set on a seedy estate in Bradford, about the late Andrea Dunbar and her dysfunctional family; she lived there whilst writing plays for the Royal Court. I spent last evening at The Renoir watching this extraordinarily gripping film where the actors lip-synched the actual voices from people on the estate which in itself was pretty amazing.   It wasn't exactly a fun viewing but the brilliant direction and casting shows what we can do

The legendary Hugh Masekela will be at the Royal Festival Hall this Friday as part of the London Jazz Festival. For a discography and the odd book about Hugh go to www.amazon.co.uk . There was an excellent article in the FT about Hugh last weekend (30.10.10): read it at www.ft.com.

Made in Dagenham **** Directed by Joe Dante Starring Teri Polo, Haley Bennett & Bob Hoskins This is a whimsical film about a 1968 strike at the Ford Car Plant in Dagenham by a small group of women who wanted equal pay. It led to closures not helped by dodgy shop stewards, awful management and political interference. They won in the end..........and women's pay was changed but still it lags behind today despite endless new laws...........a feel-good movie.

National Portrait Gallery www.npg.org.uk St Martin's Place London WC2H 0HE I spent yesterday afternoon wandering around the NPG. As there are 16,000 portraits in its archive there is always something new to see and not just the newly commissioned. I saw three exhibitions: Thomas Lawrence Portraits (until 23/01/11) **** Camille Silvy (now closed) *** and An Englishman in NY Photographs of Jason Bell (until 17/04/11) ** The Lawrence is quite outstanding and...

Names Not Numbers will be returning to Portmeirion from 4th-6th March 2011 for its third iteration. Billed as the UK Davos - it is nothing like that -being much more intimate, appealing and friendlier............. This morning we celebrated the 2nd iteration and looked forward to the next at BBC Portland Place where Lord Reith must have looked down on us horrified at the very thought of a social network gathering!  For more details: www.namesnotnumbers.com...

Archipelago **** written and directed by Joanna Hogg BFI London Film Festival: General Release (Curzon) expected April 2011 Part of Joanna Hogg's movie grammar was clearer after watching her second film Archipelago on Friday evening: ** she determines the conversation but allows the actors to ad-lib ** she prefers nature's noises than a soundtrack ** she dwells on the neuroses of upper middle class families ** her shots dwell over long to draw you...

Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikotter (Bloomsbury) ***** This is not a book for the faint-hearted. Frank Dikotter who shares his time between teaching and researching at the University of  Hong Kong and SOAS has become our leading historian and chronicler on all things Chinese. This is his eighth book on the subject. It comes just as if there seems to be another seismic change in Chinese politics as Xi Jinping is being groomed for the leadership according to articles

Under The Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin **** Selected and Edited by Elizabeth & Nicholas Shakespeare (Jonathan Cape) I had read all of Bruce Chatwin's six books written in six different genres before his premature death in 1989 aged 48. Like many I thought he was destined to be our greatest living writer. He died of Aids at a time when his family and friends were keen to hide his illness. He was thought to be bi-sexual despite his marriage to Elizabeth ( who was some kind of...

This morning at RIBA, the second EI Commentariat Awards took place hosted by the legendary Peter York. The shining knight of C4 News, Jon Snow gave the best speech for a guest giving away an award commentating on the lack of women on short lists and the lack of women winning awards.........I was a judge as I was last year. (I'm also a Board member of e.i.)  Editorial Intelligence announces the winners of      The Comment Awards 2010 at RIBA,...

BFI London Film Festival 13th-28th October 2010 www.bfi.uk/lff Tickets: 020 7928 3232 I went to see this afternoon, Fire in Babylon, a documentary about the might of West Indian cricket from the mid 1970s until the mid 1990s. It was the second showing and was sold out. My dear friend David Hooper (of Spycatcher fame) invited me as his son John was a small investor. It may just find a Distributor but is more likely to be shown at cricket  and social clubs up and down the country...

Joanna Hogg's first film Unrelated, won the Guardian's Film of the Year in 2008. Set in a house near Siena, known personally by both of us, it was about a couple middle class families on holiday. Things were going swimmingly until a friend turns up without her husband and becomes attracted to one of the sons. Beautifully filmed (and unusually without a soundtrack) it deserved its award. Now, Joanna is back with Archipelago, shot in the Scilly Isles, again it observes middle class manners. I...

London Jazz Festival 12th-21st November 2010 www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk Book now for a host of concerts and follow some of them at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3  

I went to see Shelley Wilson's Body Politic this morning at the Westminster Research Library tucked behind the National Gallery. Earlier this year 147 MPs stood down from Parliament and Shelley has captured them in a sculptural installation which reminded me of the Valley of Death or a version of the Terracotta Army. It surprised me.

For reasons not obvious to me the Art World refuses to acknowledge the brilliance of our Curators. Unlike film producers or theatre directors, our galleries and museum directors (who we do know) want to keep the brilliance of their staff to themselves. This is patently unfair. An Exhibition depends almost entirely on their professional competence. There ought to be an annual awards ceremony to celebrate their success. I mention this yet again because I slipped along to...

There has been much Mandela musings over the years since he was released from Robben Island after 27 years of tough, mostly brutal, imprisonment in 1990; three years later he won the Nobel Peace Prize and a year later he became the first democratically elected President of South Africa. To all of us he the Man of the 20th Century. His Autobiography Long Walk To Freedom sold millions when it was first published in 1994 and there have been a string of...

Our first family holiday after we had returned to the UK from our world travels which had taken us to Nigeria and Hong Kong was in Aldeburgh in April, 1959. We took a caravan (the park is still there today) and every morning I used to walk across the fields (now a desperately disappointing new-ish housing development) to a dairy to collect the milk in a jug (alas, that's gone). We walked to Thorpeness and boated on the mere and laughed at the large converted water tower....

I have a soft spot for South African music having visited the country on nine occasions over the past 18 years.........I bought: Zamajobe by Ndoni Yamanzi Kulture Noir bySimphiwe Dana and Live in Concert by Lira For good measure I also picked up a couple of books to read:  In a Different Time by Peter Harris   and Khayelitsha by Steven Otter

Wherever I am in the world when I have a few hours spare I try and find a jazz club. In Seattle I have frequented Jazz Alley, in Washington, DC I've taken to Blues Alley and in NY I have drifted into Harlaam and taken advice. I am in Cape Town seeing Jack, my son, who is on his Gap year and having spent five weeks teaching in eastern Tanzania, he is now also in the city taking a course which will give him a number of sailing certificates including day-time crewing on a yacht.   So...

I first came to Cape Town for Christmas in 1991 to stay with the MacDonald family (four brothers) and visited Constantia for a delightful supper. I failed to visit the vineyards and so today 19 years later I made amends.  Jack and I tasted wines at the Steenberg Vineyards - we started with a Steenberg 1682 (the date the vineyard was laid down) Pinot Noir Methode Cap Classique which to you and me was a champagne rose, soft on the palate, it slipped down. We moved on to a Sauvignon...

In the 1960s there were three LPs of many which I played again and again they were Sergeant Pepper, Bridge Over Troubled Waters and Good Vibrations. I know there were others from Jimi Hendrix, Santana, the Stones et al but for me these three stood out.  And unlike our parents and because of the changes to technology we can buy them again either as a reversioned cd or simply download a track.   It is hard to believe two Beatles are already no longer with...

Daisy and I went to see Yes, Prime Minister at the Gielgud Theatre on Friday night. Daisy just might have been the youngest there by forty years..... As those of you who have followed first Yes Minister and then Yes, Prime Minister on television back in the early 1980s you will know how close to the bone the scripts were and nothing has changed in this theatrical version first seen at the Chichester Theatre a few months ago.  The theatre was packed and there were laughs aplenty...

Eadweard Muybridge is at The Tate until 16th January 2011. I thought I knew a lot about Muybridge until spending a couple of hours at this wonderfully curated exhibition which comes from the Corcoran in Washington, DC. I think curators should be given the same headlines as an author or a director of a film but you'd struggle to know who was responsible for this or any other exhibition. But after a bit of scrambling around I found them to be Ian Warrell and Carolyn Kerr and well done...

Stephen Fry's second volume of his autobiography The Fry Chronicles: A Memoir has sold 37,325 copies this week easily outselling Tony Blair's A Journey (25,869). Blair's book may yet sell over 200,000 copies. Is the publishing industry now mirroring its film cousins by putting everything into a major book in its first two to three weeks before moving on? 

The Speaker's Works of Art Advisory Committee. The Election Project by Simon Roberts, Photographer. From 2001-2010 I sat on The Speaker's WoAAC and for five years was its vice chairman. The Collection does not have a great collection of photographs and I was keen to see us award our third Election Artist to one. In the end so did the committee and we were so impressed with the short list we then made strenously efforts to commission those that were placed second and...

1. Visit London Everyone but everyone is on holiday; you hardly notice the tourists; hire a Bike  (free for first 30 minutes) and pedal around the centre; check out www.toptable.com for deals in the best restaurants (about £20 a head with a glass of champagne); visit all of our national treasures (museums and galleries) for free but don't forget the British Library part of the North Bank close to Euston and King's X. 2. Eat at www.pescatori.co.uk 11 Dover...

Live Event The largest crowd of the day will be at Twickenham for Wasps v Bath on Saturday (5pm kick-off) for what will be a decider for both clubs as the winner is likely to qualify for Europe. Ticket sales have topped 55,000 and if the weather stays good expect this to climb to 65,000 – 10,000 or so short of the record 76,716 for the Quins v Wasps (20-21) game just after Christmas.   If you’ve never been to a rugby match have no fears, bring the family, dine out in the South Stand and