Morning:
9°c
MY old university contemporary Toby Young has written an article in Harper's Bazaar reminiscing about Oxford in the Eighties.
In the Eighties Boris, Nigella, Hugh and Dave all loved to party, while the notorious Bullingdon Club and other clandestine "dining societies" specialised in taking indulgence to riotous new levels. Lasting friendships were formed which have endured to this day. The wild bunch have now settled down and become the establishment.
But how wild were the wild bunch ? I am sorry to disappoint any Harper's readers but at Oxford I attended a few parties hosted by the Piers Gaveston society (founded in honour of Edward II's lover) and they all seemed pretty tame stuff to me. Yes, people wore rubber and carried whips but so what?
There is no doubting we all like to mythologise our misspent youth. But the truth is I saw far worse behaviour at my state primary school where boys would go and rob fellow pupils of their lunch money with razor blades. That was more in keeping with the spirit of Piers Gaveston.
Arguably my most debauched contemporary was the late Gottfried von Bismarck. Whether dressed up in lederhosen or fishnet stockings, he was always charm personified and scintillating company.
When I asked him about the Schleswig-Holstein Question, it didn't seem to matter that he was wearing lipstick.
All too long ago now - and the rest of us have grown much more sensible. Still, I wouldn't mind going back to one of those parties.
