Gordon Lightfoot died the other day. I dare say only members of my generation will remember him but he was a folk and country singer who let Alberta’s wide-open spaces compensate for disappointments in his personal life. We played him … Read More »

George Materna, a dedicated Goodwood supporter, missed the first Saturday in early May. This was because his second daughter (of five) was having her pre-marriage ‘hen’ do in his box. I was the tipster and the only man there. Needless … Read More »

My Aunt Kate and Uncle Doug lived at 8 Methuen Street in Southampton. They are long gone but, like Marcel Proust, I wander the narrow street now and again. I doubt that Marcel was ever seen in Southampton because he … Read More »

It was hardly the sort of race to fire the imagination so close to Cheltenham but, to my intense satisfaction and a handy profit to boot, Suzi’s Connoisseur went in at 9/1 at Lingfield the other day. He is twelve … Read More »

You can think things through and still make an error of judgement, we all accept that, though how long we think about it afterwards varies from person to person. ‘Tomorrow is another day’ seems to suit many people and I … Read More »

For quite a long time it was Italian restaurants but now the list has moved on to people, which it was bound to in the end. Mama Rosa and La Paesana were opposite each other in Notting Hill Gate, the … Read More »

Walking down Northlands Road the other day I thought about Hampshire cricket, the late John Arlott and Hambledon, the famous old village which may not have given birth to the game but undoubtedly nursed it through the teething process and … Read More »

I ebb slightly. It’s just a silly phase I’m going through. (10cc around 1975? I think so.) My Brighton day was good fun, which is all I ask, but everything has gone up and for the first time in ages … Read More »

I seem to have changed horses in midstream, as we used to say. This was going to be about the Heineken Silver Handicap at Goodwood, the startling ability of Harry Davies and Saffie Osborne and the way a very clever … Read More »

I was looking back over some old columns the other day. It’s inadvisable because there are bound to be a few slips, a few omissions, an old joke that may not have been quite as funny as you thought at … Read More »